THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 151 



mental aberration the old cow would put her foot out with great 

 rapidity, milk bucket and everything else would be disseminated 

 in the air. In the progress, of time we made a stool that only 

 had one large leg in the center. I used to like to milk 5 or 6 cows 

 and work all day plowing until the sun went down. Now you live 

 like kings. We worked all day and then milked the cows. Some- 

 times the cows would be out on the prairie or in the timber and 

 the girls and boys would get the cows and under the silent even- 

 ing splendors those maids and boys would follow them home. 

 They have never passed from my memory. They are beautiful 

 to me yet and the memory is sacred in me. We had cattle, that 

 came from the Lord only knows where. We hadn't been to 

 Elgin, and we hadn't been to Decatur, or St. Louis, but those 

 cows gave the finest milk and they made the finest cheese. We 

 had some Yankee women and they wouldn't have nothing to do 

 with us; they didn't come from the same country at all. They 

 made a cheese place out of some logs and one thing and another, 

 and they made good cheese too. So it went on until '55 when 

 I left the farm, but I tell you now this dairy business is quite 

 ancient. It commenced just after Adam and Eve got driven out 

 of the Garden of Eden. In Judea and Asia Minor the race lived 

 upon milk, so did Mr. Abraham and Mr. Lot. He wanted to 

 make all the money he could. Abraham was a lofty character 

 and like a great and splendid mountain on which the sun shines 

 forever. He said to Mr. Lot because their servants fought and 

 fought they better separate. Abraham said to him: "You take 

 the right and I will take the left", and Lot lifted up his eyes and 

 beheld Sodom was fair as the garden of the Lord and he journey- 

 ed toward Sodom. They raised flocks and herds. All that coun- 

 try raised flocks and herds so you see your business is not new. 

 Your thought and energy is expended along new lines of the 

 20th century. But these people lived and ate of the butter and 

 products they had and grew a race that made history sublime. 

 That race produced great generals and all along the history of 

 time has had its powers in the legislature of every state. How 

 did you get along without milk ? How would you have lived ? 

 Not at all. Now Sudenclorf has started a creamery. He must 



