ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 73 



ably we could raise by subscription, among the dairy farmers in the State, a 

 sufficient sum to make a creditable show. It did not seem to be possible, 

 and for my part I don't feel like asking the State Board to make another ap- 

 propriation xxii^]\ the dairymen and manufacturers are ready to do their part. 

 If this resolution is adopted I don't think you can get any member of the 

 committee that attended the meeting of the State Board of Agriculture to 

 go there again, nor do I believe you can get any members of that committee 

 to do a thing. It doesn't seem to me that it is a fit time to make an exhibit 

 of butter in September when the State Fair holds its meeting, because the 

 weather is against an exhibit of butter at that time ; there cannot be provi- 

 sion made for keeping butter in good show condition, and as a consequence 

 we are the laughing stock of all the dairy States in the country. In connec- 

 tion with this, I may say further, I have had the audacity to urge people to 

 make an exhibit of butter at the great world's fair to be held at New Orleans. 

 It seems to be impossible to get the dairymen of this State interested unless 

 the premiums are so large as to pay for the cost of the product, because they 

 know that goods placed on exhibition at that place will deteriorate. 



Mr. Wilson: I think the dairymen of this state, had they a place to 

 put their goods, and the manufacturers of dairy implements had a place to 

 put them, would give a creditable show. Now the fat stock stock show is 

 not a dairy place ; people don't go there to see dairy products, they only see 

 how much meat can be put into cattle, and, therefore, the two interests do 

 not entirely hormonize. The fact that Mr. McGlincy, after securing the ap- 

 propriation, failed to make this end of the line good, ought not to militate 

 against our trying to induce our friends to make a creditable show in this 

 state. The dairymen in this state, as a rule, attend the state fair, and as a 

 rule they do not attend the fat stock show. I believe that the State Board of 

 Agriculture are disposed to fix these things, but until they are asked to pro- 

 vide a place by the dairymen I doubt if they will, but when they do provide 

 a place I believe the dairymen will come up to the mark and we shall have a 

 creditable show. At the St. Louis fair, last September, a whole building 

 was devoted to dairy products, probably ten or fifteen thousand dollars worth 

 were there, and there was as much interest in that exhibit as any other par 

 of the show. 



Mr. Chester: I just want to say, Mr. President, that I am very much 

 surprised that this resolution is offered ; I have been for months and for 

 years, knowing that one-fifth of the dollars that come from the farm in the 

 State of Illinois, come in this dairy product. I say I have been astonished 

 when I remember these things, and then when I remember how little these 

 dairymen, these thinking men, these men who have the reputation of being 

 men of unusual intellect, I say I have been astonished to think how little in- 

 terest they take in showing to the world the magnitude of their business 

 and advertising it through the fair. As a member of the State Board of 

 Agriculture I have by individual members of this Association and individ- 

 uals interested in dairying, I have been importuned occasionally with the 

 idea that the State Board of Agriculture has not been doing its duty towards 

 the dairy interests^ and as a member of that board I am willing to admit it, 

 but let me say to you, gentlemen, there is not an interest in the State but 



