ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 57 
)f milk sugar, which is worth $4,000. II he could add this amount to 
he value of the butter and cheese contained in that quantity of milk, 
ae would find dairying quite attractive. 
The milk sugar in the milk which is used annually in the United 
States in the manufacture of butter and cheese, if saved, and sold at 
ffie present market price, would produce in five years an amount ol 
money sufficient to pay the National debt. Will any one be so kind 
as to tell us where the value of milk lies ? whether in the butter and 
cheese, or in that which is quite too frequently allowed to run .to 
waste ? It is objected to this showing that, while it is true that milk 
sugar is valuable, and is an article of commerce, yet as a matter of 
fact, we do no not manufacture it in this country ; that we 
have to deal with things as we find them ; and that so long as 
farmers are willing to send their milk to the factories, and 
receive for it the dividends obtained from the sale ol butter and 
for it in any way you please, and yet we are confronted by the fact, that 
cheese, they should not complain if the market price lor milk is based 
on the value of these two products. This is the logic ol the trade, 
and all will admit that the trade logic is very convincing, and for that 
very reason it may be a question worthy of the consideration ol dairy 
farmers, whether it would not be the part of wisdom for them to select 
their dairy stock with a view to the production ol butter. We may 
rest assured that the American people prefer butter to cheese. It may 
be questioned whether we consume as much cheese now, per capita, 
as we formerly did, wffiereas the demand lor butter is increasing every 
year. Then again, w^e ought to have learned ere this, that England 
only takes our cheese when the price is ruinously low. Advance the 
price to anything like a living profit, and’the export demand ceases at 
once. 
Contrast the present wfith the past of the English market for 
cheese, and you will find that, when their market w r as supplied with 
cheese ol their own production, the price was no shillings, with but 
slight variations for a period of ten years. Now, when they are sup¬ 
plied wffih cheese of American production, the market price is but 
slightly above half w r hat it formerly w r as, and the fluctuations are 
such as to deter any but a born speculator from shipping cheese to an 
English market. 
Were all the milk that is now used in this country lor making 
cheese, used in the manufactnre of butter, it would only increase our 
butter product about seven and one-hall per cent., and this additional 
quantity w-ould not produce a ripple in the butter market, wffiereas 
even a slight increase in our cheese product, w r ould crush out what 
little of vitality there is in the market price of that article. Charge 
this state of affairs to the quality of the cheese il you will, or account 
the price of the best cheese in the market, as compared with the price 
of butter is very low. A moment’s observation will convince any one 
that fine butter has come to be regarded by the public as the finest 
condiment that can be used in the preparation of food, and no house¬ 
wife w^ould deem it prudent or wise to spoil the flavor of the lood by 
the use of an inferior condiment. This will account lor the price which 
our fine creamery butter is selling for on the Elgin Board ol 1 rade. 
