ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 11 



fact that banking and similar institutions represent a large amount of money, 

 but when we see that we have nearly double the amount in the dairy interests 

 of the country that there is in the banking interests, we may realize some- 

 thing of the importance of the interests which we represent. 



Further, "It is estimated that it requires 15,000,000 cows to supply the 

 demand for milk and its products in the United States. To feed these cows, 

 60,000,000 acres of land are under cultivation. The agricultural and dairy 

 machinery and implements in use are worth over $200,000,000. The men 

 employed in the business number 700.000 "—almost as many men as were 

 mustered into the service of the United States at any one time during the 

 war of the rebellion— an army of 700,000 men. Now let us go further : 

 " 1,000,000 of horses. The cows and horses consume annually 30,000,000 tons 

 of hay, nearly 90,000,000 bushels of corn meal and about the same of oat 

 meal, 275,000,000 bushels of oats, 2,000,000 bushels of bran, and 30,000,000 

 bushels of corn, to say nothing of the brewers' grains and questionable feed 

 of various kinds that is used to a great extent. It costs $40,000,000 to feed 

 these cows and horses. The average price paid to the laborers necessary in 

 the dairy business is probably $20 a month, amounting to $168,000,000 a year. 

 The average cow yields about 450 gallons of milk a year, giving a total 

 product of 6,750,000,000 gallons. Twelve cents a gallon is a fair price to esti- 

 mate the value of this milk at, a total return to the dairy farmers of $910,- 

 000,000. 50 per cent, of the milk is made into cheese and butter. It takes 

 27 pounds of milk to make one pound of butter and about 10 pounds of milk 

 to make one pound of cheese. There is the same amount of nutrition in 

 three and one-half pounds of milk that there is in one pound of beef. A fat 

 steer furnishes 50 per cent, of boneless beef, but it would require about 24,- 

 000,000 steers, weighing 1,500 pounds each, to produce the same amount of 

 nutrition as the annual milk product does." 



From these figures, gentlemen, you will see that we represent one of the 

 grandest industries in the country, an industry that not only requires capital, 

 but requires the highest possible skill and intelligence, because, if a man 

 desires to succeed in this dairy interest he must be a man of intelligence. 



There is no haphazard business about it. If a man trusts to luck one 

 day, and works by science and methodical rule the second, he will have 

 nothing to show for his work. Therefore, we have this organization, we 

 meet in convention annually, we interchange thoughts one with the other. 

 If any farmer has learned anything during the year, he com^ s up to these 

 annual meetings and is willing to impart it to his neighbors; thus we are in 

 a measure a mutually beneficial society, giving out and receiving from each 

 other all necessary information to enable us to perfect ourselves in the busi- 

 ness we have undertaken. And while I have said so much about butter and 

 cheese, the milk products, the cows and the steers in this country, let me say 

 that if we should add another item of production, one which was alluded to 

 by the speaker, namely, chickens, we should add another sum of $400,000,000; 

 and what is more, very little, if any, of that product is sent abroad. We 

 consume it all within our own territory. Of our butter and cheese we have 

 built up, not only a national, but a world-wide reputation ; and Illinois but- 

 ter to-day, whether made in the county of DeKalb or the county of Kane, 

 commands the attention of the merchants of Europe as well as in the States. 



