62 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



cial honor of the nation is at stake. We are losing, our trade 

 with foreign countries, owing to the uncertain character of our 

 products. Business integrity is at a low ebb at the present time 

 in this country, and the fact that these frauds are perpetrated by 

 men prominent in business and social circles inflicts upon society 

 baneful influences which are far reaching and dangerous to our 

 future well-being as a nation. Not dairymen alone, but 'all 

 branches of agriculture suffer by these frauds . 



If our dairy interest could be protected and so encouraged 

 that its development and growth could continue in the future as 

 it has during the past quarter of a century, it would do more to 

 relieve the other branches of agriculture from the present de- 

 pression than any other possible agency. No other branch of 

 husbandry does so much to promote and preserve the fertility 

 of the soil as the dairy. The dairy then, to a good degree, 

 forms the basis upon which rests the prosperity of other pro- 

 ductive industries. Beef and pork producers would be relieved 

 of a ruinous competition by the extended area devoted to the 

 production of milk, butter and cheese. 



The principal source* of the prosperity and wealth of our 

 country is dependent upon the surplus which we send abroad of 

 our products. Our farmers may plant, sow and cultivate the 

 the soil and thus put in operation the forces of nature by which, 

 the grains and grasses are prduced. These constitute the raw 

 materials in agriculture, but the process which converts them 

 into the more concentrated and valuable product of butter and 

 cheese, requires a higher art than the mere cultivation of the 

 soil, to produce them, and when these articles reach foreign 

 markets, their uniformity of quality and high character should 

 represent a standard of excellence for American honesty as well 

 as the character of her agricultural products. 



The character of the foods intended for human stomachs, is 

 too lightly passed ov er by the slip-shod methods of our people . 

 If the bogus butters are wholesome and legitimate mixtures, in 

 all their filthiness, why should the farmers be compelled to devote 

 their time, energies and skill necessary to produce a faultless 



