190 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



to meet you. I feel that the farmer "catches it," as we term it, 

 from the buttermaker, the cheesemaker, the city retailer and the 

 consumer. They all have something to say in regard to a lack of 

 quality in the making of the product that he is making. 



I am here this morning to give it to you also in regard to 

 breeds and breeding. I will say, however, that I have spent the 

 majority of my youthful days on the farm ,and I am in sympa- 

 thy with you. I realize today that the farmers are the backbone 

 of this great commonwealth. Others, who are reliant on the 

 farmers are at the small end of the horn. I realize, also, that 

 the farmers, as a general rule, belong to an intelligent class of peo- 

 ple, who are ever ready to adopt such rules as will make their 

 operations more successful, consequently we do not hesitate to 

 give it to the farmer on these subjects that we have been speaking 

 about. 



In the topic assigned to me, breeds and breeding, I feel that 

 you have already learned a great deal from your program as given 

 in this regard. I might give you my subject in a few words, 

 which would be, choose a good breed and breed good dairy cows. 

 Then I might sit down, and you would have the subject of my 

 paper, but you can understand that in giving these subjects it is 

 like driving a nail. We start in and then have to hammer away 

 in order to get to the finish. If you will bear in mind those few 

 words, I will proceed to hammer away with this article. 



Before commencing to read, let me say I am too young a man 

 to be dealing with such a subject. I should have preferred to 

 give this subject twenty years later and been a farmer and had 

 practical experience. It is based on personal observation, the 

 experience of others, and what I feel to be right from the sense 

 of principle, and I give it to you in that way and hope it will bet 

 of benefit to you. 



Our subject furnishes us with unlimited material for thought 

 and consideration. To the intelligent mind the subject is one of 

 deepest interest and affords opportunity for the most careful ob- 

 servations from which are drawn inspirations that imbue us with 

 the grandeur and sublimity of Nature and Nature's ways, back of 





