62 ILLINOIS dairymen's ASSOCIATION. 



enterprises of this great State in which we take so much delight, shall have 

 my special attention and special care. I am much surprised as well as 

 pleased to discover the extent of your industry and enterprise, to discover 

 the enthusiasm with which it is conducted, and the remarkable success which 

 it brinies to those that are engaged in it. 



But there are some questions connected with the subject which I hope to 

 discuss to night, if not in a learned or practical way as some of you farmers 

 could do who have been engaged in it for many years, I hope at least to 

 draw your minds, direct your attention to some points which may interest 

 you and entertain you, if not instruct you and inform you. 



Again I thank you for the courtesy of your invitation, and express my 

 sincere and heartfelt pleasure at being permitted to meet with you and be- 

 come acquainted with you, and lend what^-ver personal and oflficial assist- 

 ance I can to the success of your organization. [Applause.] 



" TRANSPOETATION AS RELATED TO PRODUCTIOjS^." 



BY J. G. LOMBARD, OF CHICAGO. 



Mr. President and Oentlemen of the Convention : The subject proposed 

 for your present consideradon is one of universal interest and universal 

 concern. The expense of transportation is a part of the original cost of 

 your goods, and their production is cheap or expensive, not according to 

 their cost in your own bins and cellars, but according to the cost r<t placing 

 them on the market. It is at the feet of the purchaser that your outlay 

 ceases. Isolate yourselves from the markets of the world and confine your- 

 selves to a strictly local, home demand, and, beyond your individual and 

 family needs, your product is worthless ; and the time, labor and money ex- 

 pended upon it is time, labor and money wasted. It is to the dairymen of 

 the West just as much a necessity lo have a good carrier as a good cow- 

 just as indispensable that transportation should be cheap as that labor and 

 feed should not be exorbitant, for it is in your ability at this distance from 

 the market to compete with those nearer, that makes your calling possible 

 and your efforts successful. The proposition argues itself and needs enforce- 

 ment by no illustration. Your bushel of wheat or pound of butter, whether 

 in Ohio, Illinois or Iowa, is worth precisely the New York price— less the 

 cost of getting it to New York. 



Formerly, when our population was sparse and the volume of our pro- 

 duction inconsiderable, it was the rivers and the lakes that constituted the 

 highways of commerce, and up to a certain point these facilities seemed 

 sufficient and satisfactory, but as the population of the country became more 

 dense and their production proportionately augmented, these facilities were 

 found inadequate — inadequate not so much from lack of capacity as through 

 lack of speed and certainty— and the active and aggressive enterprise and 

 push of the American mind could illy brook the tortuous paths and certain 

 uncertianties of water communication, and so it came necessarily about 

 that search was made by the minds of men for a better, speedier and surer 

 means of transportation for themselves and their products. 



From out the travail of men's need was born this commercial prodigy 

 which we call a Bail Road. From out the necessities of commerce sprang 



