32 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



as they would now, "that is not my work," and decline to 

 do it, but always lent the willing hand and did my best. I 

 call to mind one time when we were threshing — we had 

 500 acres of wheat — the men struck, said they would not 

 milk the cows. One of the firm happened to be there and 

 he said to let the cows go. I said, "not on your life do we 

 let the cows go." I got together enough of the standbys — 

 my foreman in the factory and myself took one barn of 103 

 cows — he milked fifty and I milked fifty-three — and the 

 next milking I milked 40, or 93 cows in the 24 hours. This 

 was in the fall of the year and not so heavy milking as in 

 the Spring when they were fresh. Having worked for this 

 firm for four years, I decided I could not afford to give my 

 service to someone else, that I had better work for myself, 

 and I have never regretted it. 



I came back to Illinois after spending nearly seven 

 years in Missouri, and bought a small place of 98 acres and 

 started in the dairy business. I grew corn largely, and then 

 run a winter dairy and feed it out, and made as high as 

 twenty-five 8-gallon cans of milk per day on my small farm; 

 I bought more land, and kept more cows, and have been 

 one of the heaviest milk producers in the Fox River Valley. 

 I drew Borden around $100,000 worth of milk and drew it 

 five miles, but have been shipping to the Chicago market for 

 around twenty-five years off and on; we contracted for six 

 month periods — the largest contract I ever had was for six 

 winter months with Ruchie & Haller Co. of Chicago, to 

 deliver them fifty 8-gallon cans of milk daily from my 285- 

 acre farm; the highest single day's shipment was 55 cans. 



I joined the Elgin Board of Trade in 1877, an organ- 

 ization organized by the farmers wihch was in existence 

 about 53 years — they were instrumental in naming the price 

 on butter for years for the Middle West, and created a name 

 and fame for the Elgin Dairy District that was world wide. 

 At the peak of their success they sold around fifty million 

 pounds of butter annually ; the last few years of its existence 

 I was a director and treasurer of the Board. The cream- 

 eries gradually lessened as the Chicago Milk market in- 



