ILLINOIS DAlRYMEN^S ASSOCIATIOK. 9 



tion, but outside of the dairy belt of the state ; and with that belief we come 

 down here with a programme prepared for the occasion, and we expect to 

 present to you a programme of such a variety of interest that we cannot fail 

 to please, if we do not altogether satisfy whatever you might desire in that 

 direction ; and let me say that while it is in a measure an educational insti- 

 tution, it can be made more so if each one of you will assist in undertaking 

 by reason of questioning the parties who may be upon the floor at any time, 

 and draw out from them their modes and methods of doing this business and 

 thereby receive from them a benefit which you could not receive if you sim- 

 ply listened to their papers. 



As an educational institution we come before you, as an institution 

 which has for its aim and object the bettering of the condition of the dairy- 

 man as well as the farmer and the stock raiser and all branches of agricul- 

 ture. 



We desire to arrange our programme so that we may present new ideas, 

 a new line upon which you may work, and in doing this we hope we may be 

 able to satisfy you, and if it should be our fortune to meet with you again 

 that we may learn from you, of your experience, and of the results that have 

 attended your gathering here. Now, I hold that every individual in the 

 room can assist in this matter if he will. 



I might stand here and talk to you for an hour ; we might arrange a 

 programme which would be complete and you gain little by it if we did not 

 have your hearty co-operation, and I believe that we shall have it ; we expect 

 to have it by reason of our having come into this section of the country for 

 the purpose of breaking up new ground. We want to retire from this place 

 with the feeling at least, that we have done some good, and if we haven't 

 done as much as we expected it will not be our fault. If there were more of 

 the older representatives of the dairy interest here I might allude to some 

 particulars which would be interesting to them. There are gentlemen here 

 who have heard for years past of adulterated butter ; I heard one gentleman 

 in the room say that he did not like poor butter. No man who has ever 

 eaten fine butter wants to eat poor or adulterated butter ; and our state, the 

 second in importance in the dairy industry in the Union, is far behind any 

 of the other dairy states in relation to the matter of providing laws, prevent- 

 ing the adulteration of food products and especially butter and cheese. 



Take the state of Missouri, if you please— our neighbor— they have to-day 

 a better law preventing the adulteration of food articles than we have. Go 

 farther south if you please, in Georgia, where they can milk the best cow 

 they have in a two-quart pail — they have got a law there that is far ahead of 

 us. Go into Louisiana, you will find that they, too, have been aware that 

 their citizens have been using adulterated butter, and their health has been 

 injured, and the pockets of their merchants have been injured, and a few of 

 their farmers who have been making butter have been injured, and they too 

 have passed a law which is wise in its provisions, and if we could only secure 

 in this state a law like that we might hold up our heads and claim that we 

 were making progress. We turn to Iowa, New YorR and Vermont. The 

 New York law appears to be as good as could be framed, has been in opera- 

 tion a little over a year and has stood the test of the courts and been pro- 



