^^ Illinois State Dairymen's Association, 



Let me tell you why I have become so intense, because that 

 will help you to understand why I shall be so emphatic. I was 

 one of the first, if not the first, winter dairyman in Minnesota. 

 I came by my dairy inclination by heredity. I am a New Eng- 

 land man, was born in the old Green Mountain State, Vermont. 

 In the early 70's I went on the frontier to locate and make the 

 home where I now live. It was a strugs:le for me to establish 

 that home. I conceived the idea of dairying coming naturally 

 from dairy ancestry, and I started out to improve my herd with 

 full blood dairy sires, and for a period of twelve years I put hard 

 earned money and credit, which I had afterwards to redeem, 

 into four blooded sires, and every one of them was a failure. I 

 never kept a single heifer from those bulls with which to improve 

 the quality of my herd. Meamwhile I increased my herd by 

 going out and buying cows and heifers. My Scotch-Irish blood 

 became exceedingly hot and it has not cooled yet. I tell you 

 frankly there are times when I think over this matter when I 

 earnestly wish the laws of my church would allow me to say 

 hard words. Twelve years of struggle, twelve years of failure ! 



How Failure Taught Me to Succeed. 



Now I tell you what I got out of those twelve years — I 

 obtained twelve years of experience, and twelve years of know- 

 ledge. Then I began to breed by selection as I now will talk to 

 you about this morning. In so doing I have made a success. 

 (I have a picture here of one of my sires, which I will show you 

 after a while). I want you to come to believe as I do and I 

 will tell you how we will have to begin. It was my great 

 pleasure at one time to listen to old Bishop Taylor. You may 

 have heard of him. He was the Bishop of Africa in the Metho- 

 dist church, but before that time he had a nation?.! reputation as 

 a street preacher in San Francisco and made a great success there. 

 I cite these things to show you that he was a man of great com- 

 mon sense. A man that "bucked" up against" the gold seekers 

 in the streets of San Francisco in '49 had to know something. 

 His speech was not an oratorical effort but I got one thing out 

 of it that I shall never forget. He said, ''If you ever wish to 

 bring another to your way of thinking, always commence upon 

 a common ground of agreement." You think that over and see 

 how correct that is. Do not begin, with disagreements, begin 

 with some place somewhere where you can agree. That is what 



