568 BOARD OF AGEICULTUBE. 



DAIRYING FOR THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER. 



MISS EDITH PARSONS, CLAYTON, STUDENT IN WINTER COURSE PURDUE 



UNIVERSITY, CLASS 1900. 



Four years ago I left my country home with my brother to enter the 

 winter course at Purdue University. Will it disappoint my professors at 

 Purdue to know that I was actuated by no higher motive than the charm 

 of getting away from home? Loolving back to the farm little did I then 

 realize that after returning home I would take up a profession that I had 

 before detested, that of working in a dairy. 



Our professor pointed out to us the great field devoid of workers and 

 the many possibilities that were in store for any energetic young man or 

 woman who would devote their time, or part of it, to the dairy industry. 



We returned home not discouraged with the dairy work, but enthused 

 with the idea, that with our parents back of us financially we would build 

 up a larger dairy and make it a butter dairy. 



Our first and main difSculty has been that of increasing our dairy herd. 

 In order to increase the herd more rapidly we bought cows that were said 

 to be good cows, and sure enough they were good milk cows, but not at all 

 profitable to keep as butter cows, so we were compelled to sell them at a 

 great loss, and we finally discovered that people who own good butter cows 

 will not sell them. We feel that we are now overcoming this great difll- 

 culty by raising our own cows. 



After you decide to begin dairying the question arises, who shall care 

 for the milk and make the butter? Shall it be the farmer and his sons 

 who toil in the field all day, or shall it be the tired mother and wife, who 

 shall do this work, thinking it one of her many duties, instead of a source 

 of pleasure to her? No! In my opinion it should be the farmer's daughter 

 who should come forward and say, "I am young and know that I would 

 enjoy taking full charge of the dairy work. How proud I will feel to think 

 that I am making gilt edge butter." 



Many mothers persist in saying that the work in a dairy is too hard for 

 their daughters and would soon become a drudgery to them, but I believe 

 mothers of this opinion forget that any work, no matter how hard, if en- 

 tered into with the soul and willing hands, ceases to be drudgery and be- 

 comes an art. 



It is a girl's nature to love admiration, and what is more admired in 

 a girl than thoughtfulness, willingness, cleanliness and the rapidity with 

 which she works. All of these elements are a necessity to a person woi'k- 

 ing in the dairy and can easily be acquired by practice. 



If more girls would work in a dairy or would do some work that would 

 give them more exercise in the open air, I am quite sure their health would 



