S8 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



plete despair written in her wrinkled face and gray locks, sits the wife 

 and mother. No pleasant fire flashes and crackles in the fire place; no 

 food for the sustenance of their bodies is seen through the open door of 

 the Clipboard; no hope for comfort is seen within the walls of their 

 wretched home. What has done this? Time was when the father went 

 to his work with a happy heart, and returned in the evening to his happy 

 family. Time was when the .boy did not want for the necessities of life, 

 ■and had many luxuries. Time was when the fireplace sent out its warm 

 rays for the comfort of those around. 



Alas! all is changed. What has done this? The bleared and 

 sunken eyes of the father will tell you; the empty whisky flasiks which 

 lie around the house will tell you; the clanking glasses found in thv-^ 

 saloon around the corner will tell you; the money that lies in the till of 

 the grog-shop will tell you. But on the eve of the old year, as he medi- 

 tates upon his past career he resolves to right about face and solve the 

 problem in favor of honesty and sobriety. So, as we are standing upon 

 the brink of the new year as it were, there are problems for us as dairy- 

 men to solve. 



First, we wish to speak of the skim milk problem; the distribution 

 of milk in such a way that each patron may have his share, no more, no 

 less. Som.e creameries have solved this problem, and solved it in a satis- 

 factory way. Others are trying \.o solve it in a way that is a detriment 

 to the creamery itself and to the patrons. You are standing in the weigh- 

 ing room; a patron drives up, places his cans on the platform; you empty 

 the milk in the weigh can, weigh it, and find that the three cans he 

 handed to you contained just seventy pounds of milk. The patron drives 

 around to the skim milk room, and no doubt reasons to himself some- 

 thing like this: "Now I am almost the first one here. Of course, I know 

 I am not entitled to three cans of skim milk, but if I do not take it some 

 one else will, and I am just as m.uch entitled to it as the next man, and 

 besides, I may not come tomorrow and will need all I can get." So he 

 ■fills his three cans to overflowing, thereby taking about 150 pounds more 

 than belongs to him, and goes his way rejoicing. 



