ILLINOIS dairymen's ASSOCIATION. 87 



such conveniences so that the person who attends shall have every facility 

 for performing the work rapidly and with ease. Perhaps the cause for most 

 of the drudgery in dairy work as well as the cause of so much inferior butter 

 may be summed up in the one word inconvenience. 



When every appliance is of the proper kind and properly arranged, but- 

 ter making is the simplest, easiest and perhaps pleasantest of employments. 

 The butter will almost make itself and it requires as great an effort to make 

 poor butter as it does with inconvenient appliances to make good butter. 



The final step in such dairy business is to sell the butter. If the butter 

 is gilt-edge, the demand will seek the supply. As soon as it becomes known 

 that a farmer is making fancy butter, purchasers become very plenty, and 

 the farmer may depend upon getting the highest market price. There are 

 different classes of customers, among which may be mentioned private fam- 

 ilies, store keepers, and commission men. Selling to private families is often 

 a troublesome business, it involves a great deal of labor in delivery, more 

 or less risk in collecting payment, and often involves many petty vexations. 



One of the most satisfactory ways of selling butter from a small dairy 

 is to make a yearly contract with some reliable grocer, in the nearest large 

 city, for a stated number of pounds to be delivered each week at a fixed price 

 per pound. When such contracts are made care should be taken not to 

 stipulate to furnish more butter than can surely be supplied during the 

 months when the least amount of butter will be made. By adhering strictly 

 to this rule, purchasers will soon learn that a regular supply of butter may 

 be depended upon, even in times of great scarcity. This confidence on the 

 part of the purchaser will often add to the price the farmer may be able to 

 command for his butter. By making contracts in this manner, there will 

 necessarily be a surplus during the flush seasons. Such butter may be dis- 

 posed of to any reliable commission man. 



Dairying, if more generally practiced by farmers of Central Illinois, will 

 have an influence to enrich the land, by which larger crops of corn, wheat 

 and oats will be grown; the farmer's working capital will be employed dur- 

 ing more months in the year; the farm labor will be more evenly distributed 

 through the year; a steadier, more certain and larger income will be obtained; 

 the tendency will be to increase the number of farms, as well as to increase 

 the number of families; profitable employment at home will be furnished 

 for the young men and women; our country would be improved by the erec- 

 tion of better agricultural buildings; and last but not least, many who are 

 now doing a barely profitable business, would receive the full reward for 

 their intelligence and industry. 



Mr. Hall ; I want our friends who have come in here from northern 

 Illinois, as I have, to know that the two papers to which we have just list- 

 ened are from graduates of this University, and I believe they are the first 

 papers presented to this Association by graduates of this University, and I 

 for one, hope that those who have the making of our programs will reach out 

 for such young men as these. The infusion of new blood will be a good 

 thing for us, and we shall be made to feel that this great institution at Cham- 

 paign is nearer to us than we knew it to be before. 



