FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 39 



My subject is a very common one, the fact is that there 

 never was a debate, — I don't care whether in the country school 

 house, that many of you and I attended, in the grade schools of 

 the city, the colleges, universities or the halls of Congress, where 

 the subject for debate was : ''Which is the most valuable domes- 

 tic animal," but what the cow always won in that debate. The 

 history of this world, neither sacred or profane, cannot be writ- 

 ten without her. Did not Abraham herd his flocks on the hills 

 of Judea? Did not Hannibal take his kine with him when he 

 conquered Rome, and Julius Caesar cross the Rubicon behind 

 a yoke of oxen; in fact in all history the pioneers always took 

 with them the cow. The poetry of the world could n-^t be sung 

 or written without her. Listen to Gray's Elegy written in a 

 country church yard : 



''The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 

 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea; 

 The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, 

 And leaves the world to darkness and to me." 



So it. seems to me that the cow is one of the most important 

 domestic animals that we have, and I have been prone ever since 

 I have been engaged in the dairy business, some fifteen or twen- 

 ty years, to sing her praises, and the older I get the louder I sing 

 them. ( Laughter ) . 



Now it seems to me that I can hear some fellow in this au- 

 dience thinking to himself, saying, "Mister, this sounds all right, 

 but what w^e want to know is some of the plain, every-day truths 

 that go along with dairying, and now I don't want any of you 

 people in Illinois to get a little miffed at me if I call things by 

 their right names. I think it was Robert Burns who said : 



"O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us 

 To see oursel's as others see us !" 



It might do a little good to have you know how we look at 

 you from the other side of the Mississippi River. ' 



Now, of course, during my talk, I may refer to some of my 

 own experiences, and maybe to Iowa, I hope you will not think 



