30 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



quiet their exasperated patrons who have ventured to remonstrate, and in some 

 rare instances have dared to complain of a 50-cent June or an 80-cent August 

 dividend. They have learned by experience that it is a very simple thing to sit 

 down and figure out the profits in the dairy business, but quite another and much 

 more difficult matter to persuade the man who milks the cows and delivers the 

 milk that it pays. Many a time have I during the last year of depression been 

 called upon to present the bright side of the business, and with apparent success, 

 but more than once has my listener gone away grumbling that the "bottom had 

 dropped out of the dairy business." 



Is then the outlook for dairying really discouraging? We think not. While 

 there is certainly a depression in dairy products, I can see many reasons why the 

 intelligent, progressive dairyman should take courage. A good maxim in business 

 is, never give up one line of business till you are sure of a better. Let us briefly 

 consider some of the causes of this depression. Were I to undertake to give 

 them all, you would tire of listening. 



First, butter and cheese are lower in the market because other commodities 

 are. It is a law of trade which has few exceptions that one commodity in its rise 

 or fall sympathizes with another. Corn is low, barely above the cost of produc- 

 tion ; oats are low, potatoes are low, cattle are low, and who that has fed 40-cent 

 corn to 3-cent hogs has not become disgusted with hog-raising? That shoats are 

 only worth half the usual price seems to point to the fact that the bottom has 

 dropped out of the hog business. But what thrifty farmer will think of changing 

 from hog-raising to wheat-growing now? He will rather add to his herd, believ- 

 ing that there will be a reaction and he will reap the benefit. 



Why not, then, apply the same course of reasoning to the dairy business? 

 A fair and honest comparison of the prices of dairy products the last year with 

 the prices of other farm products will show that the dullness is about the same in 

 everything. The fact of general dullness in business is universally accepted. 

 The land is full of political economists ready each with a cause for it and with 

 remedies as various. There are cranks to-day who ascribe it to change of ad- 

 ministration, while others are just as sure that the change should have been 

 made sooner. Certain wiseacres say it is all because our revenue laws are out 

 of joint; others that the management of our national treasury is all wrong, 

 while others say it is due to the reckless extravagance of the American people. 

 But oh, says the frightened croaker, it is butterine. The manufacture of bogus 

 butter and cheese is so simple that it can be made so good and so cheap as to 

 defy competition by the honest dairyman ; that in the race the honest cow can- 

 not compete with the dishonest hog, the cotton plant and glycerine. What 

 creamery man does not become familiar with these dread forebodings? Let us 

 look at this matter fairly. 



As to the morality of the manufacture of bogus butter I have no controversy. 

 There is no law of God, nor should there be of man, to prevent the manufacture 

 of any article of wholesome food if it is made and sold for what it is. But thus 

 far our law-makers have made poor progress in framing laws to compel the 

 branding of the goods. It is proposed by some of our wise heads to tax it out 

 of existence by a national enactment. This, to my mind, however devoutly I 

 might wish and hope for it, seems entirely impracticable as long as three-fourths 

 and more of our representatives in both houses of Congress are frorn districts of 



