434 Bureau of Farmers? Institutes. 



complexities and wonders of our Christian civilization. They take 

 our old Bihle and point to the growth of the religious idea, to the 

 great gulf crossed between the Pentateuch and Paul. And this 

 evening I want to talk to you for a few minutes and, if possible, 

 to interest you in the unfolding and the development of the oldest 

 of occupations. The early history of dairying can never be writ- 

 ten, it can only be guessed at, because its beginning is buried in 

 the unfathomable past. We can only know that before man reared 

 any architectural monuments for himself and before he left any 

 written word, pressed into clay or graven in stone as a memorial 

 of his generation, before this the dairyman arose. And there was 

 a time back of that when man roamed through the forests a naked 

 root digger, creeping on his prey and killing it with his unaided 

 fist or with a stick or stone, tearing their raw flesh with his teeth 

 or rudely shaping their skins into a covering against the cold. 

 But when did there creep into his benighted brain the great idea 

 of taming and rearing these animals in order that he might have 

 them always at hand and make them minister to his wants in meat 

 and skins ? And then some day — I think we may allow ourselves 

 to imagine that it was in a beautiful effort to save the life of a 

 little child whose mother had died, some genius of that far-off time 

 conceived the idea of drawing milk from the udder of some female 

 of his herd and that day the first dairyman stood forth. I love 

 to think of that dim morning twilight of the human race - — of the 

 days when cities were merely collections of mud huts beside the 

 watercourses — when nations were only chieftain clans and wars 

 were only family fueds. And when I read the old Testament I 

 stand in the dawn of history. I see the cattle upon a thousand 

 hills. I hear the lowing of oxen and the bloating of sheep and 

 the tinkling of the bells of the camels and I know that it was a 

 goodly land " flowing with milk and honey." 



The first grazier wandered with his flock where Ins fancy led 

 him or where the pastures were greenest, until finally his pasture 

 ground began to encroach upon the pasture ground of his neighbor 

 and that was the cause of the first war. After him came the later 

 man who set up his boundaries and with solemn form and covenant 

 claimed a certain definite portion of earth for a possession for 

 himself and his children after him forever. It is interesting to 

 note how from the earliest times the ownership of land has been 

 considered an almost sacred right and its possession, sale, and in- 

 heritance have been guarded by law with especial care and made 

 secure in stately legal phrase and ceremonial. In the days when 



