STATE DAIKY ASSOCIATION. 605 



There is always something transpires in the uiorniiij; that has to be 

 t«Mi(le(l to in the evening, or tlie next morning, and yon miss things and 

 make mistakes. In order to do this one man must drive tlie wagon all 

 tlie time. The milkman is expected to be the choreman. 1 have lived in 

 tlie community ever since I was eight j'ears old. I know every man, 

 woman and child in the community. You might say I am intimately 

 a«-quainted with them. Since I started in the milk business I have heeii 

 asked to do almost everything a man could think of— even to splitting 

 wood. That I did not do. I was never quite so* badly taken back as I 

 was that morning. I had on a fur overcoat, and the thermometer was 

 down 10 or 12 below zero. I was a little ashamed of myself, too, because 

 it was the home of a widow— but then she Avas not needy, and I knew it. 

 She had a big stick of wood on the porch, about three feet through. She 

 met me at the door with an ax, and asked me to split that stick of wood; 

 it had a big knot in it, and no man could have split it. I said, "No, thank 

 you. I don't sjilit my own Avood. My Avife does that." She said, "That is 

 all the Avood Ave have got." I said. "There is your neighbor's wood pile. 

 Before I Avoidd split that stick for you, I would go and steal a load of 

 AVood for you." Of course she Avould not let me do that, and I Avent 

 aAvay and did not split the Avood. One of the greatest troubles I found 

 Avhon 1 started in the retail milk business was the town cow. The 

 meanest man in a tOAvn is the man Avho keeps a cow, and sells milk to his 

 neighbors— that is. from the retail dairyman's point of view. The next 

 meanest man in tOAvn is the man Avho keeps a cow for his oavu use. 

 They are both pretty close together. One doesn't hurt quite so bad as the 

 other. I haA-e tried several things in order to get rid of the toAvn coav. 

 When I first started I concluded I Avould Iniy the toAvn coav. .1 ran up 

 against a stump with the tirst one 1 bought. She Ijelouged to a daii::>man 

 ill town. He had a good business aud did not need to keep a coaa^ for his 

 own use. IIo met me up in the toAvn and he said the coav did not belong 

 1(1 liim, liut to his Avife, and that she wanted me to go doAvn and buy the 

 cdw . and that she Avould go to buying milk from mo. That wae along tlie 

 line of Avhat I had thought of following out. She priced the cow to me 

 at .SI."). 1 said, "I can't buy her." She said, "I am crippled ui) with the 

 rheumatism imtil I can't milk any more, and you are rimning a Avagon 

 now. and dtiing about the right kind of business, I understand from the 

 neighbors, and I thought I Avould sell out to you, and go to buying your 

 milk." She said, "I have live customers; I will turn them all over to 

 yi»n." W<'li. I thought that Avas itretty good. 1 made her an offer, and 

 ga>e lier forty dollars for the coav. I found out that already I had all 

 lii-r customers except one. She Avent to that customer Avith me and told 

 tier she had sold out. I talked nice to her. She AA-as a AvidoAV, and pretty 

 Well fixed. I got her trade. That Avas all the customer I got from this 

 toAvn COAA-. This Avoman that sold me the coav, before she had used up 

 rAt cents AA'orth of pint tickets came out one morning, and she said, "Mr. 



