ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. 245 



is to be a permanent competitor with butter. Attempts to pro- 

 hibit its manufacture, I believe, will be a failure. There is as 

 much probability of some of the present laws being modified in 

 the interest of butterine manufacturers as that restrictions will 

 be made more severe. Wishes and facts do not always agree. 



Probably in no former years has there been so much evi- 

 dence of general appreciation by dairymen of the need of possi- 

 bilities of improvement; of the possible help from science help- 

 ing practice. 



There is encouragement for the future, in the fact that, prob- 

 ably, in the near future, large sums furnished by the general 

 government will be acting and in experimental work in agricul- 

 ture, and the importance of the dairy interest is such that it, with- 

 out doubt, will receive a full measure of attention. Fortunately, 

 too, in many lines the work of special interest to dairymen will 

 be of equal value to other large classes of farmers. And again, 

 it is fortunate that the work done in other states may supple- 

 ment that done in any one. 



We may expect too much — especially too immediate results, 

 but we may safely look with well-founded hope to great good from 

 this liberal provision — as yet inoperative — for experimentation in 

 the interest of agriculture. 



CHEMISTRY FOR FARMERS. 



By Wm. McMurtrie, Prof. Chemistry, Illinois University : 



Is there such a thing as chemistry for farmers? Not long 

 ago at a farmer's institute, after I had been holding forth for 

 some time on a kindred subject, a farmer arose and said it ap- 

 peared that the speaker seemed to consider a farm a big chem- 

 ical laboratory, and all that was necessary for the farmer to do 

 was to put this and that together and get a product. I did not 

 reply to the remark, but I felt a good deal, and I felt that our 

 friend had expressed a truth without knowing it, for there is no 

 question in my mind that the farm of every intelligent proprietor 

 is a chemical laboratory, and that every good farmer is a chem- 



