22 ILLINOIS dairymen's association. 



Who of us cannot look back and call to mind many fragments of time that 

 have been literally lost, or even worse than lost, because spent in a manner in- 

 jurious to both body and soul. These cannot, like the fragments of the loaves 

 and fishes, be gathered up, or, like earthly treasure, once lost, possibly be found 

 again, for time once lost is lost forever, but the realization of the loss, and its 

 ruinous results, may help us to guard carefully against similar experiences in 

 the future. We must in some way be brought to realize things as they are in 

 fact before we will seek a remedy. Some people are really dead so far as bene- 

 fiting society or humanity is concerned, before they are conscious of it. They 

 are like the Irishman, who having heard his mistress say she liked turtle soup, 

 went and found a turtle, and as he supposed, killed it, and then brought it to 

 her. All at once the turtle showed very decided signs of life. "Why," 

 said she, "Pat, I thought you said it was dead." "In faith, ma'am, he is, 

 but he is not conscious of it." The oft-repeated declaration that time is 

 money, though not literally true, needs but little qualification to express a truth; 

 in fact, it often represents more than a money value, for money cannot purchase 

 the least fragment of it. The fragment of leisure time, which many have in 

 the morning and evening, is greatly curtailed in the experience of the dairy- 

 man, for his work is especially early and late, but there are none so busy, but 

 that many moments during nearly every day are lost because not producing 

 beneficial results. I would not, like some, advise the young plowman to have a 

 treatise on plowing before him, so that he could better understand the theory 

 at the same time he was engaged in the practice, lest the combined effort, 

 mental and physical, would result in an uneven and crooked furrow. To do 

 good work of any kind, the mind must be upon the work, otherwise the work- 

 man becomes a machine. 



A reverend gentlemen passing where a lad sat upon his plow-beam, while 

 his team was resting, thinking that the boy ought to be improving his mind as well 

 as resting his body, familiarly said, "My son, would it not be a good idea for 

 you to have a book to read while your team is resting, and not lose so much 

 valuable time 1" The lad replied, in Yankee fashion, "I say, Elder, would it 

 not be well for you, seeing time is so valuable, to take a dish of taters with you 

 into the pulpit on Sunday morning, and pare them while the people are singing, 

 then they will be all ready for dinner and that much time saved ?" The ridicu- 

 lousness of the one makes more apparent the inconsistency of the other. It is 

 not an evidence of lost time when a fragment of it is spent in resting, or observ- 

 ing the proper rules and customs which prevail and govern well regulated 

 society, nor because every leisure moment is not devoted to the perusal of some 

 instructive book, but the postponement until to-morrow of that which should 

 be done to-day, and the many unnecessary delays in prosecuting the work in 

 hand with the excuse that it will not make much difference, often results in lost 

 fragments of time, the value of which can only be estimated by the decreased 

 value of the results. As an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so 

 an hour's time in proper season will accomplish better results than twice that 

 time after the proper season has passed. Some fragments of time are unprofit- 

 ably spent in experimenting. Not that old methods are to be adhered to rigidly, 

 when newer methods that have been thoroughly tested and found to be worthy 

 can be adopted, but to insure safety, there are rails to be kept as well as ruts to 



