286 Wisconsin state agricultural society . 
man and housewife, boys and girls m summer, and chopping and 
logging in the winter and sugaring in the spring to pay off the 
modest store bill and taxes, and square up with the blacksmith, 
doctor and minister. To-day, they are rich. The dairy has been 
their mint. In the cheese press, they have coined golden eagles, 
and in the churn they have wrought fine gold. The cheese fac¬ 
tory has abolished a large part of the slavery of their occupation. 
The creamery, to which they are now turning their attention, will 
soon dispense with the the greater part of what remains. 
But even without beginning with a cheese or butter factory, our 
farmers can co-operate in this branch of production. Let a club 
or neighborhood turn their attention to the manufacture of butter, 
not to the exclusion of other business, but'gradually let them 
work into it, make it a speciality, and study excellence in the man¬ 
ufacture, for, say what you will, excellence in product is the only 
sure road to profit. Instead of selling their butter a few rolls at 
a time at country stores, to be taken into a cellar dank with the 
blended odors of tar, tobacco, codfish, molasses and rum, and 
dumped into a barrel with other stuff, just a little too yellow for 
lard and a little too clean for wheel greese, let them have a system of 
shipping and selling it together. Thus in a short time they can gain 
for it a reputation in the adjacent larger town, so that it will find 
an eager demand and the highest prices in the market, precisely as 
the repute of the lawyer, or physician brings him more business 
and larger fees. Thus they will find that a half dozen good cows 
will bring them in a sum which will go far toward paying the 
taxes and store bills for the year, besides the increase, and pay to 
the land for keeping. 
Again, in stock growing, a club or neighborhood can co-operate 
to the mutual profit of the members. Let them set about it and 
start together in bringing out a strain of good beef makers, devot¬ 
ing care and expense to that end. Soon their neighborhood gets 
a reputation which is a magnet to the butcher and drover, and 
they can charge extra for the fame of their stock. 
These steps in the direction of combined effort, I venture to as¬ 
sert, might be taken without shock to the sense of independence of 
our hardy tillers of the soil. They are but partial and do not aim 
to eradicate all the evils of which the farmer complains. In or- 
