37^ MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



appointment and showed that he is interested in this department and 

 believes there is something to its future. 



Mr. Emery — This meeting of your State Dairy Association should 

 be a christening occasion, a baptismal occasion, if you please, of the 

 oncoming generation of dairymen, who are heirs of the generation soon 

 to pass away ; but this baptismal ceremony should consist of no "mere 

 sprinkling of diluted platitudes." By this meeting this oncoming gener- 

 tion of dairymen should be led by the speakers who occupy this plat- 

 form and those who take part in the discussion into the great depths 

 of modern dairy knowledge and experience, and upon them should be 

 poured abundantly an ever progressive and conquering spirit. 



THE NEED OF A DUAL PURPOSE COW. 



(By W. P. Harned, Vermont, Mo.) 



The greatest benefactor is the personage who does the greatest 

 good to the greatest number. 



The most useful type of the domestic horse is the general pur- 

 pose animal. 



The most popular and highest-priced type of sheep is the one that 

 combines mutton and wool. 



The queen of the bovine race is the milk and beef cow. 



The highest price ever yet obtained for a cow was paid for one of 

 the beef breeds and from a tribe with the best milk record in that 

 breed. 



There is a cow question to be solved. To the average farmer and 

 to the agriculturist, or at least to the large majority of those who live 

 by the farm and stock, this is a very pertinent question. It is a ques- 

 tion of type or kind. The best cow is the one that answers the pur- 

 pose of the majority. Who is the majority? It is the small farmer and 

 his family. It is his best cow for which we plead. We have the labor 

 question and we have the race question and the tariff question, and in 

 some places we even have the boodle question. These concern the whole 

 people. Then we have the cow question — this one concerns the farmer, 

 the stock raiser and his family. Now I venture to say there are many 

 people who know these first problems are confronting the public who 

 did not even know there is a cow question. Even we farmers are not 

 as far along on this last question as we should be. We are not as far 

 advanced on the cow problem as our interest demands. 



