McHenry County, Illinois - Chapter 14: Dairy and Live Stock Interests, 1922

Chapter 14: Dairy and Live Stock Interests

The leading industry of this county is dairying, which gives it a commanding position. Dairying is carried on so extensively that the county is said to have more cows per acre than any other county in the United States. While since its early days the farmers of the county have been engaged in dairying, and marketed their product direct, at present they are disposing of their milk to the large city dealers and condensaries. The city dealers have many bottling and receiving plants located throughout the county. These, with two condensing plants, furnish the points at which the dairymen deliver their milk daily, and at these plants the milk is prepared for the city consumers, or is manufactured into condensed and evaporated products.

Differences In Methods

There is a great difference between modern methods of handling milk, and those which prevailed many years ago, owing in part to state regulations, and also to the education of the farmer who has learned how to care for his stock and milk according to sanitary ideas. Some of the finest equipped dairy farms in the country are in McIIenry County, and several of them are rated as model agricultural plants. As long ago as 1885 the attention of the public was called to the dairy interests of this county, and from then on to the present day, they have been the subject of many articles in different journals, extracts from several of which being given below.

Early And Later Day Interests

"The sinrk and dairy business of this county are fasl assuming an importance which bids fair to transcend all others. The very best of pasturage and excellent water supplies abound every where in the county. The famous blue grass, so common in the South, is here indigenous and thrives luxuriantly. These facts have led the farmers to turn their attention largely to stockraising and dairying, while at the same time they continue to give a good share of their time to the production of hay. cereals, fruit ami vegetables. The dairy interests are the importance of improving our stock of late years has become almosl universal, until now choice herds of Holsteins. Alderneys and Herefords can be seen in all parts of this county. The combining of stock and dairy interests has been attended with the most satisfactory results.

"Until within the last quarter of the century I 1860) cheese making in Illinois was a small industry. No cheese was made for export, except in the larger dairies. Factories were unknown, and the markets of the state were supplied with Eastern cheese products. The Western farmer had the best farming and grazing land in the country, as well as every facility for raising stock at less expense than the Eastern farmers; still dairying received little or no attention. Cattle were kept in great numbers, but they were driven or shipped East for beef purposes. Butter was made and shipped to a small extent, but so little care and skill were displayed in the manufacture of butter that Western butter acquired an unenviable reputation in the world's markets. Most of the farmers were in debt and gave their attention to stock, considering that the speediesl means of raising funds. As in all new-settled countries, grains and stock received almost exclusive attention and manufacturers were discouraged. As to cheese, it was urged that only an inferior quality could be made in the West ; that the milk did not contain the necessary ingredients; that the grass, soil and climate were not suitable. But all these false theories have been long since exploded, since the farmers went to work in an intelligent manner and understanding, and gave the dairy industry the attention its importance demanded.

"Before 1866 there was not a cheese factory in McHenry County. In 1866 and 1867 there were eight in operation, and the number continually increased. At first the business met with considerable opposition. There was a lack of confidence among stockholders as to profits.

There was also great difficulty in obtaining employes possessing qualifications of experience and adaptation to the work. The cheese were generally made for those furnishing the milk, at a stipulated price per pound, either two and a half or three cents. The factory proprietors furnished all other materials, making and storing for a specified time. At the expiration of the time agreed upon the owners of the eheese either took it away or allowed the manufacturer to sell for them on commission. In 1867 the cheese factories in operation in this county were:

"The Hebron factory, built in the spring of 1866 by R. W. Stewart and W. II. Stewart ; a two-story frame building, 30x55 feet, enlarged the second year.

The amount of milk used and the number of pounds of cheese produced by the above mentioned factories during 1867 is thus given in the Woodstock Sentinel :

"In addition to the above," says the same authority "there were a great many farmers in the county in 1867 who had dairies of from twenty to fifty cows and made cheese at home.

Also large dairies. The shipping of milk to Chicago is carried on <xtensively and with greal profil to the dairyman. This branch of the dairy business is also comparatively new. hut its growth has been very rapid, and it is now one of the chief industries of McHenry County. Every railroad station in the county sends its quota of milk to feed the great city.

"At the Philadelphia I lentennial Exposition in hsTG, J. S. "Watrous of the town of Xnnda. placed on exhibition samples of butter made at his factory, the Edgefield Crystal Springs Factory. This exhibit was awarded a gold medal tor its superior quality, a result particularly gratifying to McHenry County dairymen, when it is considered that not only the old states of the East were competitors for the honor, but also of sections in this country and Canada.

"The dairy statistics of 1S77 together with those of 1883, are given below, and fully illustrate the rapid growth of this industry in this county :

A Radical Change

The radical change from butter ami cheese making in this county to the present plan of bottling and shipping the milk produce of the farmers of the county was brought about in 1889-90. since which time little butter ami cheese have been made here and sent to the markets of the world. The milk has been daily bottled, or sent in large cans to I ihicago where it supplies that great and constantly growing city, less than fifty miles distant.

In the days when cheese making was one of the leading industries of the county, the product was of excellent quality, but because of the making of what was known as "filled cheese," really a skim-milk cheese filled with lard, and the throwing of it on the market, the good name of all McHenry County cheese was damaged, and all of Illinois suffered.

Cyrus L. .Mead, one of the pioneers of the county, when in his ninetythird year, then being a resident of Hebron, stated that the first cheese factory in the vicinity of Hebron was Imilt by William and Robert

Several large corporations have established themselves in the milkbottling business within this county, including the Borden and Bowman concerns. The present condensed milk plants in the county are located at Union and Chemung.

There are the following bottling plants : those of the Borden Company at MeHenry, Algonquin, Richmond, Hebron, Alden, Chemung, Woodstock, Ridgeficld and Marengo; those of the Bowman Company at Crystal Lake. Cary, Hartlend, Harvard, Greenwood and Ringwood; a country plant near Crystal Lake and at Greenwood ; the John P. Jelke plant at Huntley ; the plant of Victor Mey at Huntley ; that of the American Milk Company at Union ; The Western Dairy Company plant at Belden ; and that of the Weiland Company at Spring Grove.

Pioneer Shippers

Among the early shippers of milk to the Chicago market was L. W. Walkup who milked fifty cows, and finding that the commissions paid in Chicago left him but little profit, he, together with his brother, who later died as a missionary in a foreign land, undertook to peddle milk in Chicago, but after two months' trial became convinced that this plan was not practical, and so abandoned their project. Mr. Walkup is still a resident of Crystal Lake, states that while he was able to dispose of his milk as above stated because he was accessible to the railroad, others less fortunately situated, including the elder James Kittle, who had forty cows in his herd, were forced to make their milk up into butter or cheese and ship the same. The butter was usually packed in sixty pound ash or spruce tubs.

Intelligent Dairying, 1921

"John C. Olbrich, one of the well-known Marengo farmers, was a business caller in Harvard Monday evening, and told us a few interesting things in regard to his work. He is working 600 acres of land, there are four cement silos on his place, and he is milking about fifty cows.

Bis milk is delivered to the Borden plant at Marengo, and at present it is averaging abonl 1.400 pounds daily, his monthly milk check being in the neighborhood of -+1.400. Mr. Olbrieh is a greal worker and uses his brains as well as his hands. In conversation with us he told us that he experienced more difficulty in securing help fur the house than the ordinary male help on the farm. His practice in farming is to raise the aecessarj feed for the stock on his own farm, for there is no money to be made if one pays it all out for expensive \'r<'A. By making use of the four silos on his farm, Mr. Olbrieh can gel along if there is a failure of the corn crop. There's the secret of the whole thing. Some men make a lot of milk and pull in big milk checks, but they spend so much for feed that they are very little ahead at the end of the year. The successful farmers, the men who make the money, are those who raise their own feed and are prepared for the emergency when the crop failure comes along."

Dairy Interests Importance Of Dairy Cow

The dairy cow has been the redeemer and builder of McIIenry County. Under the present reconstruction period she has kept the bank accounts of McHenry County farmers on the right side of the ledger.