64 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
R. M. PATRICK’S PAPER. 
“ Does the Future Prosperity ol the Dairyman Demand 
that the Factorymen Skim Less and Make a Uniformly 
Better Article of Cheese ? ” 
% 
During- a little more than two months and this during 
a time of universal activity and business prosperity, we have 
witnessed a decline in the price of skim cheese from 12 
cents to about 7 1-2 cents, being fully 4 1-2 cents per pound 
on the average make. Had there been a great accumula¬ 
tion of cheese in this country and Europe at this time, or 
had business throughout the country been prostrated, then 
either or both ot these causes might have natuially pro¬ 
duced this decline.’ But as there was no great accumula¬ 
tion of cheese either in foreign or home markets and busi¬ 
ness in our own country unusually active and piosperous, 
we must then look for some other cause for this great de¬ 
cline in the price of skim cheese and the demand for them. 
During the year 188 o almost 350,000,000 pounds of 
cheese was made in the United States, or seven pounds 
each for the 50,000,000 of people in the United States. 
125,000,000 pounds of cheese were exported, leaving for 
actual consumption four and one-half pounds foi each in¬ 
habitant in the U. S. One pound of good full milk cheese 
worth 12 1-2 cents per pound is said to be worth for food 
as much as 2 pounds of beef costing 20 to 25c. Yet only 
four and one-half pounds of cheese is used by each inhabi¬ 
tant in the United States during the year while 25 to 40 
pounds of beef is consumed by each inhabitant during 
the same time. F'rom the best information at hand it is 
evident that the consumption of cheese in our country 
does not increase with the population. In many of oui 
cheese making districts the farmers who produce the milk 
from which the cheese and butter is made are much of the 
time without butter and cheese upon their tables because 
the cheese is so heavily skimmed as to become nearly indi 
gestible and worthless as an article of food. The manufac¬ 
ture of good cheese should and would undoubtedly increase 
largely the demand for foreign markets and greatly increase 
the consumption at home. The making of so much poor 
