ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 5^ 



invent schemes for overcoming the barriers of a legal fence that she 

 might satisfy her appetite on crops grown for other purposes. 



Such schemes and conduct on the part of the said town cow led to 

 innumerable lawsuits in the lower courts, and made young attorneys to 

 prosper financially. The old brindle cow with the crumpled horn be- 

 came an expert in opening gates and in picking out the finest garden 

 patch. She not only tossed the dog and worried the cat, but she shook 

 the whole town, and took pride in leading the whole town herd into all 

 sorts of trouble. She created neighbor quarrels and slanders and tears 

 and profanity. As the State grew in popularity and resources, the vil- 

 lages became towns and the towns great cities, and in this process of 

 development the town cow, as Ex-President Cleveland would say, went 

 into innocuous desuetude. 



In the establshment of dairies and creameries the country and city 

 storekeepers endured trials an d tribulations. To handle their cus- 

 tomers, and at the same time handle their dairy products required oi\ the 

 part of the store keepers a degree of diplomacy, which, were he living 

 today, would justly give him a seat in an International Peace Conference. 



In the first Illinois State Fair which was held near Springfield in 1853, 

 according to reports of the Agricultural Society, no dairy cattle were 

 exhibited, but permiums were given on the best butter made in thirty 

 days. They put a limit of thirty days to gather the cream. The first 

 premium was a diploma and the second and third $10 each. The Com- 

 mittee reported in writing thar the dairy household and general farm 

 products exhibited, with a few notable exceptions, were uninteresting 

 and discreditable to the regions which produced them. 



In 1854, the State Fair offered premiums for the best fifty pounds of 

 butter made in May and June, butter to be exhibited in October. At this 

 fair of 1854 the committee on milch cows expressed their unbounded sur- 

 prise and deep regret that at such a splendid exhibition, one mlch cow, 

 solitary and alone, should be presented for premium. The cow in ques- 

 tion named White, according to statement, fed on grass alone, yielded 

 sufficient milk in ten days of the dry month of August to make 17l^ 



