26 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
honesty once more bear sway where ignorance and corruption hold 
high carnival. They have put three millions of farmers to thinking. 
Are not these achievements enough for a short time? ” 
The dairy-interest of the State is of increasing importance. The 
cheese and butter products, particularly the former, has been largely 
increased the last year and with good paying results. There are 
two dairy boards of trade, one at Sheboygan and one at Watertown. 
I am informed that the sales at the former board have been mostly 
for cash, and that the profits have been quite satisfactory. The 
Watertown board have shipped mostly to commission-men on the 
seaboard or to Europe, and in the main the returns have been re¬ 
munerative. I am of the opinion that the cash system is the true 
one in all departments of farming, and if these boards of trade are 
to be of permanent value, as doubtless they can be, the true plan 
is for all manufacturers of dairy products to join them, and agree to 
sell their cheese and butter on certain fixed dates for cash. This 
will attract home and foreign buyers, who will pay what the mar¬ 
ket will afford at the time. Relative to the dairy products of the 
State, and other matters of interest connected with butter and 
cheese manufacture, price, &c., I quote briefly from the last report 
(1875) of the secretary of the State Dairyman’s Association, Hon. 
D. W. Curtis, of Fort Atkinson: 
; Tn 1872 the amount of cheese manufactured in Wisconsin, accord¬ 
ing to the lowest estimate I can make, was not far from 6,000,000 
pounds. The price ranged from eight to twelve cents. The amount 
of butter made that year was about 25,000,000 pounds. The aver¬ 
age price was about fifteen cents per pound. Now, in 1874 the 
amount of cheese made in Wisconsin was about 13,000,000 pounds. 
The price ranged from ten to fourteen cents per pound at wholesale 
rates. The amount of butter made, taking the ratio of past increase 
as a criterion, was about 30,000,000 pounds. The average price I 
believe was about twenty-two cents. We are here presented with 
the anomalous fact in commerce, of a great increase in the amount 
of production, and yet a corresponding increase in the average price 
received. By what can it be explained? I think the action of the 
State Dairymen’s Association, in clearing channels of export, in 
persistently pushing upon the notice of the great markets of the 
