ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 11 



The State Board went further. They insulted every creamery man of the 

 Northwest by insinuating that they were adulterating the butter and cheese 

 which they offer to the people of the country; and further, they required every 

 exhibitor of butter or cheese to come up and make an affidavit and swear before 

 the Most High that the butter and cheese exhibited by them at the Fat Stock 

 Show was made of pure cream and milk only, and let me say to you that it 

 affords me an immense amount of satisfaction to be able to state that not a 

 single exhibitor from Illinois refused to make that affidavit, plainly showing 

 that the exhibitors were honest in their endeavors to give the people a pure, 

 genuine product. 



I don't want to condemn the State Board of Agriculture. They may be as 

 honest in their motives as you or I, yet I think they made a mistake. It 

 would seem to me that if they had the proper interests of our State at heart 

 they would not have based their action on the mere say-so of Mr. Armour or 

 anybody else that the creamery men were adulterating their product, but, on 

 the contrary, they would have demanded the names of the creamery men who 

 were adulterating their product, if any there were, and would not have assumed, 

 as they did, that a statement made by these manufacturers of counterfeit butter 

 was correct and true unless it was backed up by some other statement than theirs. 



I apprehend that during the session of this convention this question of but- 

 terine will be touched upon more or less, and I would desire everybody who 

 feels at all interested in the matter to state their mind freely on that subject, 

 and let Mr. Chester when he returns home and goes down to the meeting of the 

 State Board of Agriculture be able to tell his associates that the dairymen of 

 Illinois, not only the manufacturers of creamery butter, but the men who are 

 the producers of the milk on the farm, want nothing more to do with the State 

 Board of Agriculture if in its wisdom it shall decide to hold a dairy fair next 

 year and admit butterine as an exhibit, or if they accept the $2,000 offered by 

 the butterine men to be offered as premiums. 



Let this convention take action which shall be unequivocal in this matter, and 

 I believe we shall have the support not only of the people in this part of the 

 State, but from other parts of the State. 



There is a programme prepared for this convention of papers to be offered 

 here, but we wish it to be understood that the convention can be made profit- 

 able only so far as the people will take hold and endeavor to draw out the 

 speakers upon questions not touched upon in the papers and addresses. 



Now, Mr. Mayor, I desire to return to you and through you to the citizens 

 of Belvidere our earnest and heartfelt thanks for this cordial reception which 

 you have tendered us here to-day. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



H. B. GURLER, DE KALB, ILL. 



Ladies and Gentlemen and Members of the Convention: — This is the twelfth 

 annual meeting of the dairymen of Illinois, for the purpose of exchanging 

 ideas and experience and to devise means to sustain and promote the dairy 

 interest of our State. This is all proper and it is necessary, for life is too short 

 to learn much by our personal experience. Let us remember that the Good 



