State Dairy Association. 277 



dairy cow, and underneath would be written : "Missouri stands at 

 the other end, the only harbor of safety from financial panics and 

 crop failures and industrial paralysis and commercial depression." 



It would seem impertinent, almost, for me to attempt to give 

 this intelligent and well informed audience the definition of a 

 dairy cow, and yet, I apprehend, if each one of you were asked 

 to give one, there would be a marked variance in the answers, for 

 I am convinced that to an extent we each make our own dictionary. 

 A man goes into a blacksmith shop, picks up a piece of iron and 

 drops it without being told. The blacksmith asks him, "What's the 

 matter?" And he says "It's hot." He says: "No, that isn't hot," and 

 he picks it up and handles it without inconvenience or annoyance. 

 Their definition of hot is not the same. 



This same principle might be illustrated by a similar refer- 

 ence to everything, and among the many animals that are the 

 subject of discussion at this convention, there is probably none 

 that presents so many types in accordance with the different ideals 

 as the cow. I admit that to the cattle man and to the casual 

 observer the dairy cow is the least attractive, and yet to Mr. 

 Reipbrock of Milwaukee, whose cow produced 1,000 pounds of 

 butter in a year, a Guernsey cow is the most beautiful animal in the 

 world. To the man in Holland, whose cow produced 1,100 pounds 

 of butter in a year, and W. F. Gillette, whose Colantha produced 

 nearly 1,200 pounds in a year, a Holstein is the ideal. Your Prof. 

 Eckles and Mr. Austin, when thinking of a beautiful cow would 

 see in their minds the picture of a Jersey. Dr. Niles of Lansing, 

 Mich., would decide on an Ayrshire, and to these men these cows — 

 that the beef man would make fun of, with long, thin necks, large 

 paunches, large udders extending well forward, long, high rumps, 

 dish face, broad loins, lean shoulders, deep chest, large girth, wedge 

 shape and full, bright eyes, are the most beautiful specimens of 

 the animal creation. It has been said of Bostonians that if every 

 house in Boston was swept away by a cyclone and there was not 

 a building left anywhere, to them Boston would still be there, 

 and the reason given is that Boston is a state of mind. We are 

 forced to believe that beauty is strictly a state of mind. 



I can presume on the state of mind of many to whom I am 

 talking and in consequence I will not attempt to introduce this 

 noble animal (with all of her excellent traits of character and 

 acknowledged usefulness) on the basis of beauty. While I will 

 reserve the right to exhibit her in the sweepstakes ring, for the 

 present I will enter her in a different class and in this class I am 



