140 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



My supreme wish and my greatest ambition is that I might 

 make some suggestion or give some admonition that would 

 exert an influence for the betterment of conditions, and the more 

 rapid development of what, beyond question, is the greatest 

 branch of agriculture. 



When asked to attend this meeting (notwithstanding the 

 pleasure it gives me to sit in the councils of Illinois Dairymen) 

 the demands on my time were such that I was tempted to say 

 to your faithful and efficient secretary, what the little girl said 

 to her brother. She had been a very naughty girl all day and 

 had tried her mother's patience to the limit ; finally, in the even- 

 ing when she seemed to have exhausted every other mode of 

 punishment without avail, her mother took her up stairs to her 

 room and laid her across her knee and was administering a good 

 spanking; the little brother heard the commotion; he went and 

 opened the door to go in and when the little girl heard the door 

 open she twisted her neck around until she could see who it was, 

 when she said, "Charlie, go out and shut the door ; can't you see 

 we're busy." And I can assure you today that my sentiment 

 was most forcibly expressed by the man who was ridden on a 

 rail and when asked how he liked it, said: "If it wasn't for the 

 honor, I believe I would rather walk." And yet, aside from the 

 honor, and regardless of other duties, if through the power of 

 suggestion some man is influenced to make his dairy more more 

 sanitary, his milk or cream more palatable, more healthful and 

 more valuable, his business more dignified, his conscience more 

 sensitive, his character more exemplary, and in consequence the 

 world is made better, than I shall have been fully compensated. 



This is a delicate subject, because it deals with the most 

 sensitive people in the world, and while there are certain char- 

 acteristics peculiar to the dairyman, sometimes natural and 

 sometimes acquired through the influence of conditions neces- 

 sary for success, there is a difference in the qualifications, the 

 deportment, the character and the results of different dairymen, 

 as wide as the difference in the meaning of the following sen- 

 tences : A shoemaker put up a sign, and it read "Adam Good 



