ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. gr 



lion to such an extent that the increase in consumption and demand' has 

 more than kept pace with the increase in the supply, notwithstanding 

 that today the dairy industry covers a wider field than was ever dreamed 

 of 25 or 30 years ago. 



On the north we have Canada with the Diminion government usih'g 

 I)Oth influence and money to increase both the quality and quantity of 

 dairy products, arranging for transportation not only within their own 

 borders, but across to the great consuming population of Great Britain. 

 We see Russia coming to the front as a supplier of d!airy products; little 

 Portugal also doing something along that line; the Argentine Republic 

 -occupying the same position in the southern half of this continent as the 

 United States of America does in the northern half, is rapidly develop- 

 ing in the dairy industry. Australia and New Zealand have come to thfe 

 Iront largely because of the improved methods that have been evolved in 

 iiandiling and caring for milk and its products. The Danes and Swedes 

 on the other side have become noted all over the world as manufacturers 

 of high grade dairy products, uniform and excellent at all times. These 

 things have become possible oecause of the evolution that has taken place 

 from the cow to the finished product, with science, skill, and intelligence 

 applied thereto. 



We cannot finish an article of this kind without taking into account 

 the evolution of the dairy cow. The old description of a cow: "An 

 animal with four legs, with horns at one end and a tail at the other," does 

 not fill the bill now as a dairy cow. We must have something beyond 

 that; must have the dairy type, conformation of the cow to the business 

 for which she is designed. We lo ok upon the cow now as. simply a ma- 

 chine through which the products of the farm are passed and from which 

 we receive the milk in its perfect condition. The cow that would pro- 

 duce lOO or 200 pounds of butter per year fifty years ago was considered a 

 fairly good one. They did not begin to average to exceed 100 pounds, but 

 the cow that doeS' not produce 300 pounds of butter per year now is hardly 

 considered up to date. This has been brought about by organization, by 

 breeding, by studying the problems and finding out how the milking 

 ability of the machine could be developed. 



