8 
ILLINOIS STATE 1)AIEYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
session of the Convention, the dairy business will derive advantage, and 
thereby in a degree the general interest of the city promoted, our people of 
course sympathize in the purpose of the Convention, and therefore greet yon 
cordially, and I feel sure that I may extend to you on their behalf a sincere 
Welcome to Elgin. 
The President then delivered his address, as follows: 
address op president J. R. McLEAN. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Illinois State Dairymen's Association: 
1 am highly gratified in meeting you in this our first regular Convention, 
and I hope that this session may be of deep interest to all in attendance. 
The programme before us embraces interesting and important topics for our 
discussion. Some of them, if properly discussed, cannot fail to be of great 
value to dairymen in the future. I have no doubt that the attainments 
reached and progress made in the dairy interest are mainly due to the associ¬ 
ation of dairymen, Where all subjects connected with this branch of industry 
have been discussed more or less, and the experience and observation ot 
many practical dairymen have been exchanged with mutual benefit. The 
pioneers in dairying will assent to this fact more readily than those that have 
engaged in the business at a later period. I am confident the dairy business 
in this State Would never have reached the magnitude and immense wealth 
(financially speaking) that it has added to our resources, also the Well earned 
reputation of our dairy products both at home and abioad, had the associa¬ 
tion of dairymen been overlooked. If the abo\e be tine, and who will 
doubt it, should not the dairymen in this vicinity be honored and respected 
for their early efforts and success in organizing the first dairymen’s associ¬ 
ation West of the State of New York. 
This organization was perfected in this city August 13th, 1863, With twenty- 
six members. And from this small beginning the dairy business received an 
impetus that has made it a “power” in our State, as the Secretary of the 
State Agricultural Society is pleased to term it when speaking of the dairy 
interest in this State. And yet in view of these facts there aie some among 
us ready to ask, Can any good result from this State Association ? I 
answer yes, emphatically, but have not the time or space to give my partic¬ 
ular reasons in this paper, as there are other matters of more importance 
that demand our attention. 
It will be profitable for us to look over the transactions of the year just 
(dosing and learn the results of our labor, and compare the business of the 
present with former years, and ascertain if we can the prospects of the 
coming year for our dairy products, and in order that we may have a correct 
comparison, I here give the price of butter and cheese on Hoard of Tiade the 
first sale day of each month in 1873 and 1874, to wit: 
