iLLDsrois dairymen's association. 101 



WILLIAMSON COUNTY. 



Our report for this county will concern the neighborhood of Carterville, 

 a village a few miles northeast of Carbondale, Jackson county on the line of 

 the St. Louis Coal railroad. The country is rather in the nature of a prairie. 

 Mr. and Mrs.M.Richart are giving some attention to dairying, and as Mrs.R. 

 was raised in the dairy region of the Wertern Reserve, Ohio, she is especially 

 interested. She writes, replying to several queries: 



"I think if we had the conveniences and appliances that modern dairy- 

 men use, the climate would not interfere very much, as it is warm and wet 

 weather which is very bad in butter making. 



"Mr. R. thinks timothy and white clover the best grasses for general use— 

 and considers red clover hay the best for cows. Sweet corn in the fall and 

 rye in the early spring for pasture are great advantage. The poor water 

 supply is our greatest disadvantages here. There are no springs in our part 

 of th'e county; ruoning water is very precarious; well water is plentiful, but it 

 is a good deal of trouble to draw it, and in the busy season cattle do not get 

 water as often as they need it. 



"We shipped butter to Cairo three or four years, but last year the market 

 was so overstocked we had to stop. The past summer we have been selling 

 to one of the Carbondale hotels at 25 cents a pound. We have never milked 

 more than five cows. They have averaged $32.00 each. We keep Jersey 

 grades altogether." 



UNION COUNTY. 



Anna and vicinity in this county, has more dairymen than any of the ad- 

 joining counties. Being only 35 miles north from Cairo on the Illinois Cen- 

 tral Railroad, and situated high and dry among the charming hills and 

 beautiful, prolific valleys, with sparkling springs and streams rippling over 

 beds of gravel, it is a most suitable location for successful dairying operations. 



The leading dairyman is Mr. H. T. Eastman, who supplies Cairo custom- 

 ers, as well as a home trade. Under date of Dec. 31, 1882, Mr. E., writus as 

 follows: 



"The first year of my experience in keeping a dairy in this State, I kept a 

 strict account of the expenses and profits, and I found that during the year 

 the cows had made an average of 220 pounds of butter per cow, and the 

 sales amounted to $74 per cow, and the cost of mill feed, &c., was $18 per 

 cow, making net returns of $56 per cow. No charge, however, was made for 

 pasture, or hay, or anything produced on the farm. On the other hand no 

 credit was given for a few calves reared, milk and butter used in the family, 

 and the sour milk fed to hogs. I find that I can easily keep a cow to each 

 five acres of land, which would give a clear profit of $11 per acre for my land." 



About a year later, under date of January 9th 1884, he again wrote: 



"I have been engaged in a dairy here for the last six years in a small 

 way, having kept from five to twenty -five cows. I was also engaged in a dairy 

 in western New York when I was a boy. It was always said there, that it 

 required five acres of land per cow; but here in Union county I find I can 

 keep a cow to each three and a half acres. The advantage here is, we can 

 raise forage crops that cannot be grown there. Rye can be sown in August 

 and pastured in November and December, also in the spring, and then by 



