12 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



production, but they do not last long, and in the long run we 

 find a ready market for all production. I should say that this 

 present time is particularly good. Last season there was a slight 

 over-production in some lines, but the war conditions in Europe 

 has changed the condition, the condensed milk factories are hardly 

 able to fill their orders, the cheese business is also brisk and 

 everything points for a strong demand for dairy products for 

 the coming year with good prices. 



If the dairymen will go into the dairy business as a business, 

 they will find in a short time that their lands will increase in 

 fertility and values will go up in leaps and bounds. I can re- 

 member when you could buy land for $50 or $60 an acre in 

 Minnesota; that same land today is selling for $125 to $150, and 

 it is a hard matter to get farmers to let go at that figure, and it 

 is the dairy business that has done that. It has again become 

 fertile after it was depleted due to the constant wheat farming 

 which preceded dairying. The biggest increase has come in the 

 last five years because of the immigration of Illinois farmers who 

 have gone up into that state and bought that land and gone into 

 the dairy business on a larger scale. 



It has been the history of the business, as it has developed 

 all over the country, wherever farmers have gone into the dairy 

 business, that community has become prosperous in a short time. 



About three years ago I was on a trip through Southern 

 Illinois, not as far south as this, and being interested in the 

 dairy business I was looking things over rather closely and in 

 driving past a^ farm I noticed a new barn and a new silo, quite 

 a nice looking outfit, and out of curiosity I drove in. The 

 farmer was working around his barn and I remarked that he 

 was getting into the dairy business in pretty good shape. ''Yes,'' 

 he answered, "I am just trying it out. I got an idea watching 

 my neighbors there might be some money in it, and decided I 

 would try it out." 'Ts that the first you have done?" I asked 

 him. Yes, he was going to try it. The man had put in a splendid 

 outfit from the concrete silo, barn, stanchions and everything. 

 Well, it was not going to cost him anything to try it out. ''I 

 raised corn and hogs and fed the corn to the hogs, and the hogs 



