IliLINOIS DAIRYMBK'S ASSOCIATION. 23 



Elgin milk a reputation for excellence that can never be effaced. And now, 

 after a lapse of twetily years, every milk wagon in Chicago bears the stamp 

 of Elgin milk. 



This branch of the business of dairying has kept increasing until, as 

 appears from statistics furnished me by the officers of various railroads cen- 

 tering in Chicago, there was shipped to Chicago in 1883, over the 



C. & N. W. E.R 952,902 cans of milk. 



C. M. & St. P. R.R 272,735 " 



C. B.&Q.R.R 192,737 '' 



C. &R. I. R.R 113,774 " 



Illinois Central R.R 55,000 " 



Total 1,587,148 cans of milk, 



Of eight gallons each, and every can of that milk, as soon as it reached the 

 Chicago market, was made to bear the imprint (Elgin milk) of that first can 

 of milk taken by Mr. Smith in his ox cart in 1852, and shipped to Chicago. 



All honor to those noble men, who in those early days, and at the very 

 begining of this department of the dairy business, laid so deep and broad a 

 foundation for the reputation of " Elgin milk," that it has never been ex- 

 celled, and to this day is regarded both by the producer and consumer as all 

 that is required in order to give it currency in the great commercial market 

 of the west. 



It was but a few years after M. Wanzer established his cheese factory 

 in Elgin, when a member of the legislature, publicly declard in "the 

 house" that there was not then made in this state such a thing as a good 

 cheese. 



Why he made such a statement, or what relation that statement bore to 

 the subject under discussion is not known. 



Suffice it to say, that when the gentleman's statement was reported to 

 the gentlemen composing the " Elgin Dairy Club," they resolved to send 

 the '' member" a cheese made at Elgin, Illinois, by I. H. Wanzer. 



The club appointed your worthy president, Doctor Tefft, a committee to 

 select the cheese, and in due time the cheese was forwarded to Gen. A. C. 

 Fuller, at Springfield, to be presented, with the compliments of the Elgin 

 Dairy Club, to the '' member" who had never seen a good cheese that was 

 manufactured in Illinois. 



General Fuller was faithful to the trust committed to his charge, for on 

 a set day he publicly presented the cheese in the legislative chamber, and 

 for once in the history of legislation in Illinois, " Crakers and Cheese " 

 were the order of the day. 



From that day forward it was officially and commercially recognized that 

 " Hamburgh Cheese," would meet with formidable competition in the west. 



In the year 1865 Mr. Gail Borden established a factory in Elgin for con- 

 densing milk, and so the dairy industry in Illinois took a new departure. 

 This process of treating milk is purely American, being an invention of Mr, 

 Borden himself. 



Whatever is done in this factory is systematically done, and-the product 

 is of the highest grade, and is well known in our markets, as well as in 

 markets abroad. 



