DAIRYING. 25 



and covers up the traces of all filth, no matter how vile. But 

 its use entails the poisoning of human beings. I would not be 

 understood as claiming that all who drink embalmed milk will 

 die; but their digestion suffers, and in particular infants and 

 invalids have been seriously injured if not killed by its use. 

 In one case which came under my personal observation an infant, 

 fed on formalin dosed milk, a child in rugged health, began at 

 once to go down hill, to pass undigested curds from the bowels 

 and to lose in weight. She was on the road to literal starvation. 

 The milk she was given kept five days without souring in a hot 

 room and was heavily dosed with this poisonous material. 



IV. THE DAIRYMEN. 



Now a word in relation to the dairymen. We sometimes think 

 that some of our cows are poor machines. Had the cows a voice 

 I wonder what they would say about us. For ten years I have 

 gone up and down the hills and valleys of Vermont, and to some 

 extent of some other New England states, I have looked into 

 the eyes of dairymen and talked to them, I have seen as the years 

 have gone on interest grow and intelligence increase, evidenced 

 not only inside the hall but outside in the fields and in the barns. 

 Every day and every year there is an increasing appreciation on 

 the part of the farmer of the fact that somebody else knows 

 something about his life vocation besides himself. He realizes 

 better than ever before that others can help him, that press, 

 grange, institute, college and station workers may do him good. 

 There is said to be one day set aside in the Catholic calendar in 

 the Azores when a special prayer is uttered by the inhabitants that 

 they may be saved from being so impious as to desire to know 

 more than their fathers. That is not the American notion. I 

 do not begin to measure up to my father's standard — to my 

 shame De it said — but I want my boy and my girl to know more, 

 to be better workers in the world than I am. The very best 

 thing in agriculture today is this increasing earnestness on the 

 part of the people for more knowledge. A meeting like this is 

 an earnest of it. The plea which I want to leave last with you, 

 on which I want to lay the greatest stress, the remembrance of 

 which I would have you carry home with you, is a plea for the 

 children. Let us give them every possible chance to learn the 



