ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 15 



the husband and father, and she be left with a family of small children, and 

 the farm on hand to look after and manage? Prudence, at least, would dic- 

 tate the necessity of her learning what she may, perchance, so soon be called 

 to practice. 



Knowledge does no honest person harm, if properly applied. Elgin started 

 her dairy business some thirty years ago, with monthly meetings of a dairy 

 club, which was subsequently merged into the Illinois Dairymen's Associa- 

 tion, greatly to the loss of Elgin's dairy farmers, but, we trust, resulting in 

 a benefit to the farnaers of the state at large. The discussions in that club in 

 those early times have been of incalculable benefit to her farmers in these 

 latter days. 



It is claimed by many that the first reliable account of butter was given 

 by Herodotus, about 450 years before Christ, although the Bible speaks of 

 butter of much earlier times ; yet, this is questioned by not a few writers of 

 subsequent date ; therefore, we credit the Scythians with b^ing the first real 

 butter-makers. The original process of butter-making was simple in the ex- 

 treme. A leather bag was made to hold the milk, which is reported as hav- 

 ing been partially filled with that article, and then fastened to the caudal 

 extremity of a horse, he being moved about to produce the churning. Per- 

 haps, had that little sheep-legged animal, with unmistakable ears tipped 

 heavenward, and a fine, sonorous, musical voice, which strikes the drum of 

 the ear at half a mile or less like a thunder-clap, and with a decided dispo- 

 sition to use his hindermost legs, like so many drum sticks, been in use at 

 that time, and the bag of milk been attached to his caudal extremity, and 

 a patent right taken out at the time, it might possibly have saved the ex- 

 pense of the 4,000 patents on churns of this day. 



At the present time our creamery butter stands high in our market 

 places, and the dairy farmers and factorymen of Illinois should look well to 

 their business to see that everything in connection with the dairy and manu- 

 facturing establishments are kept in the very best condition. No doubt, all 

 will admit that milk, cream, and even butter, readily receives and takes up 

 when in contact with unpleasant or noxious odors; and, I trust, no one for a 

 moment will claim that good, first-class butter cau be made, or put up, 

 wheie such odors exist. Not only this, but it has been claimed that disease, 

 like small-pox and typhoid fever, has been transmitted through milk stand- 

 ing in an infected atmosphere. 



In looking over the Chicago Journal, a few days ago, I found the follow- 

 ing, which, I trust, you may all have seen. Nevertheless, in my judgment, 

 it will bear repeating. It is from the pen of Dr. Seward, a medical practi- 

 tioner of Orange county, New York, which is well worth the careful thought 

 and attention of every dairy farmer of our state. The Doctor says : " In a 

 letter to the New York Tribune, in support of the theory advanced by that 

 paper, that milk is a disease-carrier which should be carefully examined by 

 chemists and sanitarians, in order to determine how it becomes affected with 

 the disease-producing germs, he reports having had three cases of typhoid 

 fever in the family of a farmer, which, he had no doubt, originated from the 

 fact that the well from which the dairy cows were supplied had been sunk in 

 the barn-yard. This well had become foul from drainage from the manure 

 heap, and when it was cleaned out the men who did the work were sickened 



