of 99.5, silver medal 98.87; for butter, gold medal 99.5, silver medal 99.25, and for milk gold medal 96.75, silver medal 95.55. The gold medal for cream was given for a score of 99.55 and the silver medal 93.9. Five hundred diplomas were also awarded. The best average score of one maker, in the different butter classes, was 98.50, and in cheese, in the different classes, 97.68.

The novel feature of rapidly modeling the busts of prominent people in butter attracted much attention. An expert in that line of work was secured and a place arranged for him in the pit of the amphitheater where the people could sit and watch him. As a rule he succeeded in making the bust such a good likeness of the persons represented that they were easily recognized.

As previously stated, the big cheese continued to be one of the principal attractions. One of the first things people coming into the building would ask was, "Where is the big cheese?" After they found it and looked it over quite often the question was, “It is not a real cheese, is it?" In order to convince them that the cheese was real it was planned this year to make it early enough in the season to have it ripened and fit to cut in pound pieces and sell to the people visiting the dairy building during the fair. The cheese was made at Martinsburg, Lewis county, New York on July 17. It took the product of eight surrounding cheese factories to furnish the milk that was used in its manufacture.

In order to make a cheese of this size it is necessary to have a hoop and press built especially for it. It also requires two quite heavy chain pulleys and a harness to fit the cheese in order to handle it. Like a small cheese, it must be turned over quite often to prevent the moisture settling to the lower side. From this brief description it can be seen that the making of a large cheese is not a simple problem. It must be handled in a way not to crack or injure it, and that means there must be plenty of help so that by the time the large cheese is put on the platform in the dairy building it has cost quite a little more than the same amount of cheese put up in ordinary sizes. The cheese this year weighed 6,500 pounds, taking the milk from 3,300 cows one day. If it had been made up in ordinary 36-pound cheeses, it would have made 185 of them, which is as many as one of the refrigerator exhibition cases would hold.

The cutting of such a cheese is quite a problem to accomplish without waste. The method finally worked out was to measure down four and one-half inches and set a hoop there fastened so it could not get out of place. Then with a sharp knife cut the bandage at the top of the hoop and with a fine steel wire cut a slice four and one-half inches thick from the top of the cheese. With a fine steel-bladed gang knife this was cut up into one-pound pieces. Paper cartons had previously been made of a proper size to fit the blocks. These had a picture on one side showing one of the operations in the manufacture of the cheese. On the other

side was printed "Souvenir of Big Cheese at State Fair." All the help that could be utilized was secured, but it was difficult to cut and put up the cheese fast enough to supply the demand, and after it was all sold people continued to come asking for more. The quality of the cheese when cut proved to be exceptionally good, which with the novelty would account for the rapid sale.

The inception of the plan for the pyramid of varieties of cheese and later the arranging for and making of the big cheese which have been exhibited the past few years, was cared for by Horace A. Rees of Lowville, and its success has been largely the result of his executive ability and skill.

The question may be asked, "Has the attempt to stimulate interest in dairying paid?" I think it may safely be said that it has. Had it not been for the agitation of the question of better quality which was stimulated by the competition at the annual fair, the progress which has been made would not have been nearly as rapid as it has been. In the later years, the careful scoring and criticism of the exhibits has become a matter of education. some of the western states, judging of samples of butter and cheese is done each month at the state experimental station in order to prevent any dropping back in quality. The New York State Agricultural College furnishes the most up-to-date instruction possible in dairying. Under the Department of Agriculture of New York State competent instructors are constantly visiting the factories and creameries to check up the work of the makers. Farmers' institutes are held for discussion of all these questions. Together with all of these agencies, the State Experiment Station is constantly working to solve the problems that come to perplex the dairymen, and sending out published statements of the results of their work. It would seem that with all of these agencies working for him, it should not be so difficult a problem for the dairyman who is really interested and trying to do good work, to succeed.

W. D. HOARD, Editor

Hoard's Dairyman, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin

Many are the forces that have united to bring to its present magnitude this great dairy industry. It is now over forty years since I commenced my public activities in its behalf. As I look over the pathway of progress, it seems remarkable that there should have existed in the minds of men such unity of sentiment, such unselfish devotion to the good of the cause, such steadfastness of effort and such conspicuous ability. All is centered in the one purpose of promoting the knowledge, skill and prosperity of the dairy farmers of America.

It is useless to attempt to explain how or why all this is true. The fact that it is true has, from the first, led the efforts of men forward and onward. Always in the minds of its devotees the industry itself has been bigger and more compelling in its influence upon their efforts, than could be measured or accounted for by individual ambition and self interest.

From the early days we see men devoting themselves to the work of organization, to the enactment of wise and just laws in its defense, to the creation of schools for dairy education, to the study of the relations of science, to the work of invention and, not least of all, to the creation of a sound and instructive dairy literature. Every great industry must have its literature, for here are concentrated the records of human achievement and experience, that are invaluable and which would otherwise be lost. Think what a repertory of history relative to dairy progress can be found in the files of Hoard's Dairyman, for the one thousand seven hundred