46 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 
agree to account to the dairyman for the value (on a particular day of 
each month or the average of the month) of a pound of such cheese 
for every 9 or 10 pounds (as agreed) of milk received (less the charge 
of making, etc.,) or if butter is made, to account for the value (deter¬ 
mined in same way as cheese) of a pound of butter for every 11 * or 
24 pounds (as may be agreed) of milk received (less the charge of 
making, etc.) Prohibit the making of skim cheese entirely. It is 
highly probable that some such arrangement—which would be per¬ 
fectly fair and just—would achieve beneficient results to dairymen 
and reward reasonably the proprietors of factories. As the business 
is managed now, the proprietors assume no responsibility scarcely. 
If their hired men make a mistake—add too much or too little ren¬ 
net, heat to too high or low a degree, or otherwise injure a vat of 
milk, by which loss ensues—neither the proprietors nor the em¬ 
ployes sustain, as they ought, the loss. The dairymen usually sustain 
all the losses, whether from mismanagement, negligence or wilful¬ 
ness. It is said that every factory has its graveyard, and if these 
graveyards could talk, a tale would be told disagreeably interesting 
and instructive to dairymen. 
I must not be understood as casting any censure upon, or find¬ 
ing any fault with the proprietors of factories. Business is open to 
all, and if they have simply availed themselves of opportunities to 
make money—without risk or much capital—furnished them by the 
dairymen, they are entiled to commendation for their penetration 
and enterprise. 
Milk perishes quickly, and to become merchantable, generally, 
must be converted at once into articles of food less perishable, and 
this work of converting their milk into saleable commodities is there¬ 
fore properly the business of the dairymen. It is to their interest 
that this work shall be done economically, cheaply and excellently, 
and not until they do it themselves, or see that it is done, need they 
expect the highest remunerative results. If they are so unwise as to 
furnish the opportunity, they ought not to complain if clear-headed 
and energetic merchants step outside of their vocation and engage in 
the_to them—thriving business of manufacturing butter and cheese 
out of the milk furnished by the dairymen, at a high, fixed price 
and of the kind and quality suitable to their interests. Shrewd men 
not only have the right, but always will, when permitted, seize upon 
a chance offered to make money, and I admire the proprietors of 
factories for the genius displayed in their government of dairymen. 
