State Dairij Association. 279 



Now, in discussing the claim of the dairy cow, let us decide 

 whether she has any pull or not to make her welcome. Some of 

 you may say, "Who is she?" "What claim has she on our time?" 

 "What influence has she?" "What good can she do us?" Listen, 

 are you a politician? She controls more votes than any other 

 industry represented in this convention. Are you a banker? She 

 deposited more money in the banks of our country last year than 

 came from any other one source. Are you a merchant? She 

 bought and paid cash for more merchandise last year than any 

 other item of agriculture. Are you a stock raiser? She is stock. 

 "She is the steer's mamma. She is the steer's sister. Her product 

 is the foundation of a good hog." Are you a farmer? Exclusive 

 of stock-raising as a specialty, she has made more good farms out 

 of poor ones than all the other influences combined. She has 

 changed more 6-bushel wheat land and 15-bushel corn land to 25 

 bushels of wheat and 75 bushels of corn to the acre than all of the 

 combined effort of modern science. 



It seems to me that above all professions the farmer has had 

 the most pronounced recognition. Did you ever stop to think 

 that the first farmer was Adam? Did you ever think that when 

 God Almighty made this wonderful world, when He created this 

 wonderful habitation of ours, when He had completed it and pro- 

 nounced it perfect, when He had finished this universe with its 

 majestic mountains, its extensive plains, its towering trees, its 

 rippling brooks, its noisy rivers, its placid lakes, its rough oceans, 

 its dense forests, its innocent flowers, this beautiful piece of ar- 

 chitecture and workmanship, over which the inhabitants of the 

 globe have gone into ecstacy for over 6,000 years and have con- 

 tinually found something new to admire, when, after this thou- 

 sands of living creatures were created, when finally the climax was 

 reached in the creation of man in God's own image, a perfect 

 creature, that man was a farmer, and placed on a farm? 



This is not all. Do you remember years after this, when God 

 desired to recognize His children in a substantial manner for their 

 obedience, or when He made them a promise of a rich reward for 

 fidelity and compliance with His requests, in His desire to make this 

 gift valuable, did He offer corner lots in some city, bank stock, 

 mines of rich mineral, blocks of fine houses, droves of horses or 

 beef cattle? No; He offered them farms. That was the most 

 valuable heritage He could give them, and I want to call your at- 

 tention further to the fact that He made this proposition just as 



