ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 351 



ciation was secured for Effingham, and was held in Austin opera 

 house in Effingham on January 16th, 17th and 18th, 1908. The 

 farmers took a great interest in the meeting of the State Asso- 

 ciation and attended the sessions in large numbers, and the 

 benefits they derived from the meeting can be seen on every 

 hand even at this early date — in better cows, better barns, and I 

 understand that thirteen or fourteen silos have been shipped to 

 farmers in Effingham and will be ready for the corn this fall. 

 Five years ago there were very few thoroughbred dairy cows of 

 any breed in our county. Now there are thirty or forty regis- 

 tered Holstein-Friesian sires at the head of as many herds. 

 There are four thoroughbred registered Holstein-Friesian herds 

 of from ten to twenty cows and twenty-five or thirty more herds 

 that have from one to five registered cows in them and many 

 others that contain grades. 



Through our local association we have been able the past 

 year to buy feed at the minimum. We have bought and sold to 

 our members since last fall eleven car loads of bran at a saving 

 of from ten to fifteen cents per hundred, pounds to the farmer. 



At a recent meeting it was figured that the associaion had 

 saved the farmer of this community from $1,G00 to $2,000 on 

 feed within eight to ten months, with the result that the farmers 

 are feeding more grain than they could afford to feed at the 

 higher prices. It was also through this local association, at two 

 meetings, one held on September 23rd, 1905, and the other on 

 October 21st, 1905, which were attended by from one hundred 

 and fifty to two hundred farmers, that a very satisfactory under- 

 standing was arrived at, between the farmers producing milk 

 and the buyers, regarding the prices to govern and what would 

 be required of the producers by the buyers. The association is in 

 good running order and we believe will continue to be of great 

 benefit to the farmers and community. 



F. G. Austin, Secretarv. 



