54 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



indicated the productive qualities of the cow. You are talking 

 the same problems of the rearing and feeding of herds and the 

 best breeds for milk, for meat and as all-purpose animals ; of the 

 care, manufacture and marketing of the product, over and over 

 again, and it sounds very familiar. Great, but not adequate, 

 progress has been made. But, friends, dollars and cents are not 

 all there is in it. Manufacturers have become rich, and the 

 farmers are beeoming rich, yet there is something, gentlemen, 

 beyond riches, and something beyond the detailed statements we 

 have heard in the management of this sort of a business. 



You talk about cows, you talk about cattle, you talk about 

 the manifold details of the work, but I have heard not a word 

 about the man or the woman or the boy or the girl, and here is 

 the startling weakness of your slowly advancing line. When 

 Dewey sailed into Manila bay and destroyed the Spanish fleet, 

 and when Togo wrecked the magnificent squadron of the Rus- 

 sians in the sea of Japan, it was not alone because of his superb 

 equipment. Rogesvenski's was equally fine, ; it was not all in 

 the prodigious weight of his guns, for his enemies were of equal 

 number and caliber. It was the man behind the gun. It was 

 the little Jap, a better man than the Russian. 



Are your farmers properly training your boys and girls for 

 the successful development of this great industry of yours. 1 

 am talking more to the farmers now. I see a class of sharp, 

 shrewd, intelligent men here with us, indispensible assistants, 

 who are selling many appliances for your use and convenience, 

 and they are well fitted for their work, but farmers are you well 

 fitted for your work, which lays at the foundation of it all. He 

 who was called " First in war and first in peace," the great father 

 of our magnificent republic, said, " That of all the pursuits of 

 men, the most healthful, the most useful, and the most honorable, 

 is agriculture." Farmers, do you believe that? Do you act 

 according to such belief? If you do so believe, do you try to 

 attain that high ideal which belongs to you. I believe it from 

 the bottom of my heart. Look back over the history of our 

 Republic and see where our truly great men came from. The 



