82 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



ous and sympathetic legislator follows these wise and proper provisions with 

 the saving clause, that " No person shall be convicted under any of the fore- 

 going sections of the act if he shows to the satisfaction of the court or jury 

 that he did not know that he was violating the provisions of the law, and could 

 not by reasonable diligence have obtained the knowledge." How excruci- 

 atingly tender this saving clause is in its provisions. I can but vividly im- 

 agine the simplicity and guilelessuess of a man who is so naturally depraved 

 and innately mean that he would deliberately go to work and mix lard, or 

 beef fat, with rich, pure butter, for the purpose of selling it for food and 

 cheating his fellow men, and then coming into court and defending by show- 

 ing that he actually did not know there was any law against it. He did it as 

 a naturally dishonest act, and knew at the time that there was a natural law 

 against it, which made it criminal, as much as to steal his neighbor's prop- 

 erty. 



Our laws for the prevention of contagious diseases among animals are 

 fairly effective, and should be carefully enforced on every occasion. I hope 

 that all laws intended to punish and prevent all forms of fraud in connec- 

 tion with this business will meet with the hearty approval and support of 

 this representative body of men ; that honor and confidence may be the sure 

 fortress of the protection of this industry as well^s it is of all others. 



In preparing my address to-night I have ignored figures and statistics 

 which at best are not very attractive to the popular audience, but which are 

 instructive and interesting to the student of this calling. But you will get 

 the facts and figures, which are sufficiently abundant to show in a startling 

 manner the growth of this enterprise, from others who address you in this 

 convention, and who have the time and skill to collate and pres-^nt them in 

 a striking way, and you will get them from your reports and publication. 



I must ccmfess, also, that I have felt much embarrassed in preparing and 

 delivering this address, for keenly recognizing the eternal fitness of things 

 as I do, I am painfully aware of the lack of that practical knowledge of the 

 present dairy business which fits one to be an instructor or an entertainer. 

 Present methods and forms in dairy farming are an interesting but practi- 

 cally unknown field to me. My personal experience with the cow is limited 

 to two well marked, but widely distinct epochs in life. I do not know as it 

 will aid you much in your search after knowlt-dge to relate any of my expe- 

 rience, but it may entertain you, and such as it is you are welcome to it. 



The first epoch was from twenty-five 'o thirty years ago, when a boy upon 

 an Illinois farm, where the house was located in the fringe of the timber and 

 the fields timidly ventured out upon the adjoining prairie. About my first 

 regular boy's duty was to tend the cows and do the milking, aided by an 

 older s ster. The family regulations and part of its subsistence, under the 

 able command of my mother, required this duty to be performed regularly, 

 if not cheerfully and well as was of ten the case. To diive the five or six 

 milch cows in from the stalk-field or the straw stacks in winter, or the woods 

 pasture in summer to the cow lot near the barn, then let in the roaring, 

 hungry calves for a very brief and limited feast, and when it was thought 

 they were getting too much nearly pulling their ears off to make them letup; 

 and then with milk pail and three-legged stool, tackling the sore and cracked 

 lacteal organs of the old-fashioned, sensitive and somewhat resentful cow. 



