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ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



In the Orient were originally but two occupations, farming and 

 trading. That old rich empire, whk h we might call one vast farm, Egypt, 

 grew wheat centuries before the Christian era, and the Nile watered as 

 good grain as we have today. 



There is another phase whi -h we can not discuss at length, namely, 

 there is a continual draw upon the farm for strong young men and women 

 to fill important places in the nation. The offices to fill need physical 

 strength as well. 



It is interesting to note that out of 385 members of the House and 

 90 Senators at our Capitol, (while but three Senators and fifteen Repre- 

 sentatives registered as farmers) that 159 of them were either born on 

 the farm, or spent their boyhood there. The Christian Herald goes farther 

 to say: "'Notwithstanding this fact, but rather owing to it, they area 

 company of well educated men, many of them are self made, in a sense 

 that they have) made their own way in life, and 169 of them have been col- 

 lege bred." 



I would say to the farm boy, "'Stick to your job." We do not often 

 have droughts in the middle west so severe as the past year. When it is 

 so with us, the luscious fruits of the orchard come blushing to us, bend- 

 ing their boughs in sweet humility as if to apologize for the fields stint 

 measure, and we of course accept the same with gratitude. 



We should not be discouraged. It we do our duty, there will be a call 

 for us according to our ability. 



We call to mind circumstances of the Putnam, called from the plow 

 to head armies. Jacob watched the hocks in Judea's hills preparatory to 

 becoming Israel's king. 



Gen. Grant was hauling wood in St. Louis, and Robert Burns best 

 poems were written while he was the Ayshire plowman. 



Neither be discouraged if we are poor, for Lincoln said: "No men 

 are more to be trusted than those who toil up from proverty or know 

 the worth of a dollar more." 



The monotony of farm life is now being relieved by advantages of 



