10 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



KESPONSE. 



BY R. P. MCQLINCY, SECRETARY, ELGIN, ILL. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : On behalf of the Association of 

 which I have the honor to be Secretary, I accept with pleasure the hearty 

 and earnest words of welcome you, sir, have been pleased to tender to us to-* 

 day, and I extend to you and through you, sir, to the citizens of DeKalb city 

 and county, our thanks for the earnest, cordial manner in which you have 

 received us. Perhaps I might say, at this moment, that it was eminently 

 proper that I should be selected to respond to the address of welcome^ 

 delivered by a Methodist preacher. My reason for saying that is simply this, 

 that I am the brother-in-law of a Methodist preacher ; therefore, you will 

 see that the two ought to work in harmony. 



I have been entranced as I sat here and listened to the eloquent words of 

 the gentleman in relation to this prosperous, growing, widely-advertised 

 town of DeKalb. I know, for myself, and I think that I speak for my con- 

 frere. Dr. Teff t, when I say that we who live over the way a short distance 

 thought that we had the boss town in the ?tate of Illinois, and the town that 

 was known perhaps to more people than my other town in the United States. 

 But I find that DeKalb also has a reputation, and one of which not only her 

 people, but the people of the whole State, ought to be proud, knowing that 

 in the State of Illinois we are building up to-day industries that give us a 

 world-wide reputation. I am proud of it, and I am sure that all of you gen- 

 tlemen, who are not citizens of DeKalb, rejoice with me in knowing that we 

 have such towns as this in the great and growing State of Illinois. We rep- 

 resent, sir, a peculiar interest — the cow interest of the state, and form an 

 integral part of the cow interest of the United States. To-day there are, in 

 the United States, not less than 13,000,000 of cows used for dairy purposes. 

 Of that number, Illinois has oae-thirteenth, or 1,000,000 in round numbers. 

 We estimate the value of these cows at $35 per head, which is a very low 

 estimate, butit w^ill give you some idea of the vastness of this industry, which 

 has grown up here in JS'orthern Illinois in a very few years. Within the 

 recollection of almost every one in this house, this industry has been devel- 

 oped and grown until it has reached proportions that are simply marvelous ; 

 and with your permission, I would like to give you a few figures that I have 

 clipped from a paper, representingf this great industry. It comes from 

 authority which is unquestioned. The figures are large, but I have no doubt 

 they are correct. " Said an officer of the Erie Milk Producers' Association, 

 speaking to a New York reporter a few davs ag >, ' There are $2,000,250,000 

 invested in the dairying business in this country.' " All that has grown 

 within a very few years. So far as the northwestern territory is concerned, 

 it has all grown up within a space of twenty-five or thirty years, at most. 

 New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and some of the eastern states have been 

 longer engaged in this industry than we haye. But it is within three years 

 that Minnesota has joined the dairy states of the northwest and is now pour- 

 ing her cow product into the market from that section. Dakota, Nebraska, 

 Kansas and Missouri are following in the same steps, and adding to this 

 grand aggregate. It is a fact, that this amount of money is almost double 

 the money invested in banking and commercial industries. We recognize the 



