74 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
regarded as the base of all wealth and prosperity. And because it is 
essentially an experimental business. True, we have learned a great 
deal. We no longer require our mothers, wives and sisters to work 
up the milk at home with dash churn and wash tub. But I assure 
you one thing. The goods they made were genuine. 
They knew nothing of the use of oleomargarine or suine. No, 
no, Fellow Dairymen, and especially Gentlemen Manufacturers, don’t 
flatter yourself that because you can so adroitly manipulate “trich- 
enous,” and cholera hog-fat and diseased tallow, that none but an ex¬ 
pert can detect it, that you know it all. There remains much yet to 
learn. Within a month a reliable gentleman told me that a member 
ot his family, in cutting through a roll of butter that was made not a 
thousand miles from here, something obstructed the passage of the 
knife. On investigation it proved to be a pork rind. Manufacturers 
need to learn to be more careful, if nothing more. 
I come now to speak more specifically as to what legislation we 
want ; and here let me say, what perhaps I might have said in the 
outset, that the line of thought in this paper, thus far, and will con¬ 
tinue to the end, is substantially the same as presented by the writer 
to a legislative committee at the last session of the Illinois Legislature. 
I was about to say that among the most important items of legislation 
required b}' the dairy interest is, in my opinion, the establishment of 
dairy stations. 
( 
The most satisfactory answers to questions pertaining to agricul¬ 
ture, in any of its departments, are the ones given by nature, and the 
most successful man is, as a rule, the one best able to ask questions of 
her. And what we ought to have is a place to ask questions. A 
place where the obscure and partly-known may be made clear and 
positive. A place where trained and careful men may study the laws 
and forces of nature that apply to our calling. 
True, we have our National department, and many States have 
their State Boards of Agriculture, but while we are manufacturing 
and growing for millions beyond our own boundaries we have but few 
experimental stations of any kind, and, as far as my knowledge ex¬ 
tends, none of the kind indicated. The old world is far in advance of 
us in this matter. As early as 1852 one was established at Liepsie, 
and in 1879 there were in successful operation 123 stations of various 
kinds. Some of the States are doing something in this direction, but 
very properly making a specialty of those things that belong to their 
more immediate locality. It is to be feared that while we are prideing 
ourselves on being the “pioneers” in the dairy business of the West, 
we shall wake up bye and bye to the fact that our competitors on the 
Northwest have gained the lead. Doubtless our institution at Cham¬ 
paign will suggest itself to many as being just the one to do the work 
desired. While it is not the province of this paper to criticize the 
workings of that institution, it may not be out of place to say that 
any one looking into the matter will be likely to find very obvious rea¬ 
sons why, without very radical changes, it would fail of accomplishing 
the end sought. 
