106 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



than royalty. She is a god, and as such she is worshipped. 

 She is considered as steps to Heaven, as a part of Heaven. 



It is not for this we hold her in high esteem. It is 

 not alone for what she has done that we have given her 

 so prominent a place, it is also for the part she plays in 

 contributing to our comfort. 



Little do we realize the debt we owe the cow. Dur- 

 ing the dark ages of savagery and barbarism, we find her 

 early ancestors native of the wild forests of the Old World. 

 As the bright rays of civilization penetrated the darkness 

 of that early period, and man called upon the cow, she 

 came forth from her seclusion to share in the efforts that 

 gave us a greater nation and more enlightened people! 

 ' For thousands of years she has shown her allegiance 

 to man, sharing alike in his prosperity and adversity. 



In 1493, when Columbus made his second voyage to 

 America, the cow came with him — and from that time to 

 the present day she has been a most potent factor in mak- 

 ing this, our own country, the greatest nation, with the 

 highest type of womanhood and manhood history has ever 

 known. 



Her sons helped till the soil of our ancestors and 

 slowly moved the products of the farm to market. They 

 went with man into the dense forests of the New World, 

 helped clear them for homes, and made cultivation possi- 

 ble for the coming generation, and when the tide of emi- 

 gration turned westward, they hauled the belongings of 

 the pioneer across the sun-scorched plains and over the 

 great mountain ranges to new homes beyond. 



Truly, the Cow is man's greatest benefactor. Hail, 

 wind, droughts, and floods may come, destroy our crops 

 and banish our hopes, but, from what is left, the Cow manu- 

 factures into the most nourishing and life-sustaining goods 

 — and is she not life itself to the thousands of little ones 

 dependent upon her? We love her for her docility, her 

 beauty and her usefulness. Her loyalty has never weak- 

 ened, and should misfortune overtake us, as we become 

 bowed down with the weight of years, we know that in 

 the cow we have a friend that was never known to falter. 



