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down to the stock yards and have a lot of hogs brought up and 

 put into the show to keep up appearances. Well, from that 

 small beginning, beginning, too, without any means, without any 

 appropriation, without any funds in the treasury to back this 

 thing up with, you know something of the dimensions to-day to 

 which this show has come. You know that just a few weeks 

 ago we closed one of the finest stock shows that has ever been 

 held in America ; the horse show was certainly one of the grand- 

 est that ever was held on this continent. 



Some four years ago it struck an individual member of the 

 board that, now, a great deal of work had been done towards 

 advancing certain interests ; that there were interests that had 

 been neglected, and one of the neglected interests was the dairy 

 interest of Illinois, and when the subject was presented to the 

 board it brought great astonishment when it was discovered 

 that the milk product of the cow in the state of Illinois was 

 bringing more money into the pockets of the people of Illinois 

 than the beef product, and the members of the board looked 

 with astonishment when these figures came before them, and 

 many absolutely denied them and demanded proof, but the proof 

 was forthcoming in statistics and they finally cheerfully admitted 

 that the milk product of the cows of Illinois was a more valuable 

 product to the people than the beef product, bringing in more 

 money year by year. After conceiving this idea they decided 

 that it was possible for them to do something towards advancing 

 the dairy interests of Illinois; to be sure dairy cattle had 

 been shown, the Northwestern Dairymen's Association had 

 been permitted to make an exhibit, but nothing else had ever 

 been done towards advancing this great interest of Illinois. In 

 the course of time this idea was matured and three years ago 

 the board announced a premium list, backed it up with an 

 abundance of money and held what was known as the first 

 dairy show, under the auspices of the Illinois State Board of 

 Agriculture, and that was, I assure you, a very large exhibit. 

 A gentleman who has been familiar with dairy shows on this 

 continent for the last fifteen years assured me that it was the 



