THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. 685 



Hence you see, my original subject is a very broad one as well as one 

 of exceedingly great importance, for upon an affirmative answer being a 

 truthful one, depends much of our weal and woe, our success or non- 

 success and not of ours only, but of our posterity as well. Progression 

 or retrogression is the universal law. 



Fifty years ago, Mitchell county was uninhabited. Its broad prairies 

 stretched out in all their grandeur. The eye could look for miles and 

 miles and see nothing but grass, grass with now and then a tow-head to 

 break the monotony. But the cry went up in the east — go west, young 

 man, go west. Leave your rocks and stumps and go out and inhabit the 

 beautiful. Brave men and brave women too, heard the cry and came with 

 stout hearts and willing hands. At first they settled near the streams 

 as timber for fuel and water were necessities. On their $1.25 per acre land, 

 little log houses sprang up. A yoke of oxen and a cow often constituted 

 a man's personal property. Many came with even less than that. Market 

 one hundred miles away, no roads, no bridges, no fences. They had none 

 of the modern machinery; they sowed broadcast by hand; they mowed 

 with the scythe, they harvested with the cradle. They plodded along, 

 doing the best they could on their meager incomes while they subdued 

 the tough but fertile soil. Long days, hard toil, poor rations, thin cloth- 

 ing, small incomes — these were their portion. All honor to these veteran 

 pioneers; they laid the foundation, firm and strong and sure upon which 

 we are building. I trust that none of the present or future generation 

 v ill ever feel the least inclination to belittle their labors, or fail to rever- 

 ently honor such of the noble fathers of Mitchell county as are yet 

 among us. 



They solved the problems of life as they came to them. YvHien some 

 twenty-five years ago they realized that land could deteriorate in fertility 

 and that wheat was an uncertain crop, they cast about to find some other 

 means by which they could provide life's necessities and liquidate indebt- 

 edness. They hit upon the cow and fortunate for them and for you and 

 me as well, that she came to their rescue. It was a long step up the ladder 

 of prosperity. 



But we soon tired of the rows of long shelves in the cellar filled with 

 six-quart pans of cream-covered milk, all of which must be skimmed, the 

 cream ripened and then churned by hand after pail upon pail of water 

 had been carried down and up those tiresome cellar steps to reduce the 

 temperature of said cream. The very thought of the labor is appalling to 

 the farmer's wife of today and who sees only so much milk and cream as 

 are necessary for the family consumption, the rest of it having passed 

 through the farm separator and found its way directly to the milk tank 

 or to the calves and pigs. 



The creamery — what a boon it has been to the busy wife and mother. 

 In this line Mitchell county is proud of her improvement over old fash- 

 ioned methods. I wonder if there is a creamery in the state that puts out 

 more butter than Osage Co-operative, and at less expense per pound. We 

 think not, at least it has wrought wonders. But we are not at the top. A 

 dozen years ago our butter sold for Western Extra — it sells for that today. 



