110 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



the past will enable them to reap a greater harvest, than the Dairymen, 

 and I know of no opportunity greater, in assisting to bear somebody's 

 burdens than is offered by the man engaged in Dairying. He doesn't 

 have eternal sunshine ; he finds thorns among his roses ; he finds pebbles 

 in his pathway, and while many of the obstacles have been removed 

 by the effort of the dairy department of the State University, there 

 are some who are yet unable to feed four per cent, milk in a three per 

 cent. cow. There are a few who utterly fail to raise a calf on skim 

 milk. There are others whose market for cream only pays for twenty- 

 five per cent, when they are able to churn fifty per cent. Without any- 

 thing to guide them, some dairymen have been floundering around with 

 experiments, until tliey are as completely lost as the professor who 

 was examining a dark brown substance on paper, when a friend called 

 to visit him, and he a.sked his friend if he would kindly let him place 

 a little bit of the substance on his tongue, as his own taste was viti- 

 ated from tasting so many. The man said certainly, and stuck out his 

 tongue. The professor took a little of it and placed it on his tongue 

 and the man rolled it around for about a minute as if he were eating 

 something good. The professor said, "Do you note anj' effect," and 

 the man said "No, none." "It doesn't paralyze or prick your tongue" 

 said the professor. The man said, "Not that I can detect." "How 

 does it taste," said tne professor. "Very bitter," said the man, then 

 the professor said, "Alright," and his friend said, "What is it," rather 

 suspiciously. The professor said, "That is what I am trying to find 

 out, somebody has been poisoning dogs with it." 



In conclusion. Members of Missouri State Dairy Association and 

 Dairymen of jNIissouri, I would write on the tablet of your memory, 

 the importance of your profession, and the responsibility it carries with 

 it. You are furnishing to the climax of God's creative power immortal 

 beings an article of food — an indispensable diet ; your product goes 

 to the homes of the rich and the poor; it is for the strong man who 

 goes forth daily in his physical might to earn a living for a dependent 

 family; it is the hope of life to the sick and afflicted whose last spark 

 is flickering on the sea of uncertainty ; it is the sole dependence of 

 millions of infants, whose only hope of manhood and womanhood is 

 the life-giving force that comes from your product; it is in some form 

 on the poor man's table, and the rich man's banquet; in a hundred 

 forms it has appeared on the table board this ^Merry Christmas and 

 Happy New Year of millions of families all over the world. Are your 

 cows healthy, and from them are you furnishing an article that will 

 perform the office intended from the beginning of time; or are they 

 diseased and are you sending to the homes of Missouri an article that 



