56 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



day he died. And now, Mr. Herring-ton, I have nobody to go 

 to but you, and I feel awful bad." Now, when you laud and 

 care for the cow, though I esteem her man's best friend among 

 all created animals, still I beg of you in high heaven's name, do 

 not place the cow or farm above the family. I desire the farmers 

 of our land to think and to act more wisely and nobly than that. 

 Too long we have allowed the idea to prevail that the dullest 

 boy or girl would do for the farm, and allowed the brightest to 

 seek the professions, or a situation in the city. A sad and ruin- 

 ous mistake. Too long we have taught the farmer not to be 

 above his business, and kept his ideals and his living too low. 

 Wrong, all wrong. The man and the woman should stand 

 shoulders above the details and drudgery of business, not in any 

 way neglecting these, but clearly recognizing the noble truth that 

 the individual is vastly more than the occupation. The dollar 

 is a mighty power, but the man should be far mightier. Get all 

 the dollars you honorably can, but don't can all the dollars you 

 get; use them most wisely and most profitably; always remem- 

 bering that their first and noblest use is in the real betterment of 

 your families and yourselves. 



I once knew a dairyman, who upon 40 acres made a larger 

 profit, and far more pleasantly, than his adjoining neighbor made 

 upon 120 acres. The one intelligently standing above his busi- 

 ness, the other ignorantly struggling beneath his. Dairymen, 1 

 plead not for less, but for more intelligent care of the stock and 

 farm; more thought, more study, deeper research and for the 

 real high purpose of it all, which should be nobler manhood and 

 womanhood, more life of intelligence and joy, less death of stu- 

 pidity and low existence. I plead for the home, for the boys 

 and girls, who will be the men and the women of tomorrow. 1 

 want the farmers' associations in its personnel to equal in all 

 points of business acumen and gentlemanly culture, the bankers' 

 conventions of the day. Nearest to nature, and to nature's God, 

 there is no occupation in life that offers so noble rewards for 

 exalted life as does the pursuit of agriculture in this great com- 

 monwealth of Illinois. But with deepest mortification we must 



