ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 7 
Now if the dairy business for the last decade has been overdone I, as a dairyman, 
uld be pleased to have it continue so to be in the future. 
By information I learn that the lowest price of butter on the Elgin Board of Trade 
s year was twenty cents per pound, and the highest price reached, December 11, 
s forty-two and a quarter cents per pound, while in 1870, or twelve years ago, before 
establishment of the present creamery system in this State, it ranged from eight 
;wenty cents per pound. This does not look much like over-production. 
For the eight months prior to August 31, 1882, the total exportation of butter from 
* United States was only 4,728,121 pounds, while for the same time last year it w r as 
107,698 pounds. That of cheese fell of 22,588,498 pounds for same time. This 
»ws a decline in the exportation of butter for the eight months prior to August 31st, 
5,679,597 pounds. 
The exportation of dairy products for October of the present year is only about 
‘-half of that for the same time one year ago. Now while the export trade of the 
sent year has largely fallen off, the manufacture of dairy products for the same 
le has very much increased, yet there is no decline in prices at the present time in 
3 State’s productions. And why not ? simply because the average American loves 
)d butter on his bread. 
Since we have got to producing a prime article of butter in this country, the con- 
nption has largely increased, until we have had conferred upon us the name of 
ng the greatest butter as well as sugar eaters in the wide world. 
Some few years ago it was reported that England consumed about four and a half 
mds of butter per capita, while the United States used about fourteen and a half 
mds per capita per annum. 
Assuming that the foregoing figures given by the honorable gentleman from West 
rginia are correct, .and allowing no increase in the amount of production in the 
ited States since 1878 (which is not the case by any means), we shall have left, after 
lucting the 7,092,181 pounds (the estimated exportation for this year), 1,492,907,819 
mds of butter to be divided between the 50,00o,000 people in this country. If 
ired on this basis it will give about thirty pounds of butter per capita as the con- 
nption for 1882 in the United States. These figures are entirely exclusive of the 
Dtnargarine and suine which are said to be used to some extent in this country, 
is will be a fraction over one and a quarter ounces per day per capita. 
Mr. Willard, as above noticed, said that dairymen of New York were the best 
icated in their business of any class of farmers. I fully believe this will hold true 
Illinois as well as in New York. I account for it in this way: Dairymen meet 
ae of their fellow dairymen every working day in the year, and frequently talk 
ether more or less about their business. This not unfrequently calls out new ideas, 
1 as thought begets thought, each may profit by what the other advances. Farmers 
i general rule are far too reticent. As a class they rarely meet their brother farm- 
in social converse. Not unfrequently they rise at early morn and drive through 
day as though their very lives depended upon doing just so much that day. 
Tile farm should never be so managed as to occupy allot' the husbandman’s leisure 
its. He should so manage as to have time for mental improvement of himself and 
lily by newspapers, books and social meetings with his fellow-man. He is placed 
e as a social being to enjoy the sunny side of a short life. Should his acquisitive- 
s be so great as to absorb all his finer mental powers, he will bend every nerve to 
ain more than a sufficiency or more than he will be likely to use during his short 
□urn here below. 
1 Now in conclusion, please allow me to say to the farmer, the dairyman and the 
iculturist, it was your forefathers that secured the independence of this Nation. 
Sis you who will have to stand by the flag in all great emergencies. It is you who 
duce the real wealth of the country. And without you, or some one else to fill 
ir place, the Nation could hardly live a twelvemonth. Then how important it is 
lit you study well your every act. 
Do not spend your hard earnings in the courts or to fee their attaches, but save 
m to educate and make happy your good sons and daughters. Give to them that 
ral, honest and needful education which will fit them for a useful and happy life. 
Do not educate them to think or believe that a farmer’s life is degrading to any 
lest man or woman. But on the contrary, that it is the noblest of professions, one 
which all other professions have to bow. It is a profession self-sustaining and life¬ 
serving. One that has been downtrodden in this country because those engaged 
t have quietly traveled on in silence. 
It is now time for the agriculturist of this country to rise and say to the balance 
the people that we laid the corner stone of this great Republic, and have done 
ch to sustain it, and henceforth the programme must be changed, and you bow 
knee to us instead of us to you as heretofore. 
