24 ILLINOIS dairymen's association. 



fresh pastry only are fit to be eaten. It is no marvel that the pigs are in better 

 health than the children, or that much material that should and might be 

 added to the yearly revenue is lacking. Let us look for another fragment. The 

 father goes with his family to the store for the purchase of a few necessary 

 articles. The merchant is very bland. (No reflections intended.) It is his busi- 

 ness to be agreeable as much as it is the farmer's to raise calves for the dairy- 

 man. His goods are remarkably cheap, because bought at a very opportune 

 moment. They will certainly be higher soon. You had better buy your entire 

 winter supply now. You say you have not the money for so large a purchase. 

 "Never mind that, I will trust you," says the merchant, "until you can market 

 your grain or until you get your dividend from the factory." This, however, 

 may depend upon the par value of your credit. With these and many other 

 flattering words, and because you can buy on time, you run up a bill far beyond 

 your expectations or your real necessities, and then adding some item merely 

 to gratify pride or to surprise the neighbors, you depart, having in reality 

 counted upon your chickens prematurely and spent your money before you 

 earned it, and when pay-day comes, as it surely will, whether grain is high or 

 low, whether butter is up or down, whether the factory pays for your milk, or 

 the proprietor concludes that he needs the money himself, your purchases are 

 largely things of the past, and you feel, if compelled to pay, as though paying 

 for a dead horse. If debts are allowed to accumulate, interest eats like a canker, 

 discouragement follows, and just as sure as a little leak will sink a ship, so sure 

 will the diversion of these fragments of material sink the farm or the home. 

 Carelessness in the care of buildings, fences or farming tools, is another frag- 

 ment of more or less value according to the amount invested in them. The lack 

 of paint to protect from the weather, the swinging of the barn door, when it 

 should be fastened, either shut or open, the opening of the gate just far enough 

 for the wagon wheel to tear it loose, or leaving it open when it should be closed 

 to protect the crops, the omission to replace a broken or fallen board, the leaving 

 of tools, especially wagons, exposed to the sun and rain, all of these and many more 

 are fragments of value worth saving. The loss of material involves the loss of 

 credit, of ambition, of hope, of social standing, and sometimes of reason and 

 life. From a dairyman's standpoint, I can say but little, having never made it 

 a specialty. My first recollections of farming, as conducted by my father among 

 the rocks and hills of Connecticut, remind me of the milking in the early morn- 

 ing, for his rule was to have the cows taken to the pasture before the sun shone 

 upon them. But the half dozen cows, and the every-other-day cheese made by 

 my mother's own hands, were in comparison to the dairyman's work of to-day 

 something like the few acres in a New England farm to the many broad acres 

 upon which the Illinois farmer spreads himself. The fragment of material lost 

 by injudicious milking is greater than many imagine. In order to obtain the 

 greatest amount of milk from the cow the milker must have perfect control of 

 himself, of his own movements and of his temper, and never allow himself to 

 be interrupted by the presence or talk of another. I suppose some would say of 

 himself or herself, but according to my ideas of propriety it is no more woman's 

 province to milk the cows than man's to make the bread or wash the dishes. 

 Circumstances may for the time justify either. Nervousness on the part of the 

 milker, abuse of the cow by words or acts, or interruption of the milking, will reduce 



