l66 AGRlCULTURi: OF MAINE. 



THE COW THE FRIEND OF THE FA^HLY. 

 By R. W. Ellis, Embden. 



(Stenographic Copy.) 



We have heard two very able lectures this evening, rather 

 off from the general trend of this meeting, and I am to occupy 

 a few moments in bringing you back to the main theme. I will 

 give you a little of my first experience in dairying, and the 

 reasons why I selected that as my business for life. My father 

 was a Methodist minister of sixty years ago, and if you know 

 anything about their lives, you will know that it was not a very 

 remunerative business. They relied for their living upon 

 whatever the people pleased to give them. If they were 

 good beggars they would get a pretty fair living. If they did 

 not believe in begging, sometimes they would go pretty short. 

 My mother was a good. Christian woman. She believed it was 

 my father's duty to preach, and she never murmured. She did 

 the best she could with her little familv, but finallv she thoug^ht 

 she had stood it as long as she could, and she said to my father, 

 'Tf you will buy a little place and one cow I will go to it with 

 the three children and with what you can give we will try to get 

 a. living." He bought a little place and one cow, and, my 

 friends, I never shall forget that cow. She was a red cow with 

 a white face, and she looked good to me the moment I saw her. 

 I was eleven years old at that time. I took care of the cow and 

 milked her. W^e called her Charity Sweeten, and she truly 

 represented that name, for many and many were the deeds of 

 charitv she did to this little familv, and she certainlv sweetened 

 our lives all the way along. My mother was a good butter 

 maker and she made a good lot of butter from that cow, and 

 she and I used to take it to the store and trade it for the gro- 

 ceries that we must have, and the children lived principally on 

 the milk. I have lived on bread and milk for a great many 

 days, and I like it today just as well as I ever did. We did 

 not have milk that came very near the top. The cream had to 

 be taken off. The first calf was a heifer and after she got to be 

 a cow, those two cows supported the family in good shape ; and 



