170 ILLINOIS STATE ^DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



deep — a stream of wide circulation and but little influence. While 

 the dairy cow has been regarded as indispensable on every farm 

 and her product a necessity in every_ family, my observation has 

 been that as a rule she has had seemingly but little influence in 

 the social, commercial and political field. The agricultural press 

 devotes about half its space to corn and wheat, half of the re- 

 mainder to cattle, horses, hogs and sheep and the rest to advertis- 

 ing, except one or two columns devoted to the performance of a 

 record-breaking cow or the failure of a scrub herd, that was half 

 fed and had no care. Something over thirty years ago a dairy 

 cow got some notoriety and her picture in the leading periodicals 

 of the United States by kicking over a kerosene lamp and start- 

 ing a fire that cleared off a patch of ground preparatory to the 

 building of the greatest city of modern times, one that is com- 

 mensurate with the demands of a great and growing country, 

 thereby making herself a benefactor, instead of the instigator of 

 a calamity. It has not been long since she succeeded in getting 

 her picture into one of the leading magazines because of a suc- 

 cessful campaign conducted by her personally in favor of Peter 

 Porter of Niagara Falls for congress against the old time and 

 popular politician, James Wadsworth. A few days since I had 

 my attention called to the election of a Republican in a Demo- 

 cratic county in Iowa through the influence of the dairy cow and 

 it has been intimated that she had something to do with the Dem- 

 ocratic victory in Nebraska in the last campaign and the informa- 

 tion comes to me that Missouri has awakened to the necessity of 

 importing a few good Democratic dairy cows into the state be- 

 fore the next election. If there are those here to whom her in- 

 fluence as a politician appeals ,1 can recommend her to your care- 

 ful consideration. I believe under proper care and favorable 

 conditions she would present a deadlock in the legislature and I 

 know that she would forever remove the necessity for sending 

 troops to our capital. I appreciate there may be some here whose 

 interests are varied, and even those who are prejudiced against 

 dairying, and in view of this I realize fully the responsibility of 

 introducing and chaperoning this member of the world's animal 



