72 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



over it. One day he reached home with his face all bleeding* 

 and his clothes torn and his mother said : "My dear boy what is 

 the matter with you?" "That's what happened to me while I 

 was counting lOO." So something has happened to you while 

 you have been counting lOO. 



The foundation of this business in which these gentlemen 

 are spending their lives is the dairy cow and before I go far- 

 ther I want to pay this tribute to the cow. I feel like Governor 

 Hoard who says when he meets a cow he feels like taking off 

 his hat and saying: "Good morning, madam." She is a won- 

 derful animal. In India she is worshipped. She is regarded 

 as the steps to Heaven, a part of Heaven. I doubt if we real- 

 ize the importance that she plays in the life of this country and 

 each one of us. In the morning when we arise the first thing 

 we behold is the wall on which the plaster is held by her hair. 

 We put on a pair of shoes made out of her skin. We button our 

 clothes with buttons, and comb our hair with a comb made from 

 her horns. We go to a tempting breakfast and find she has 

 provided us with a plate of butter, a piece of cheese, a glass of 

 milk, a pitcher of cream, a smoking hot beefsteak, and above 

 everything else are the sweet prattling children whose foster- 

 mother she is. 



We go to our places of business and fasten our important 

 documents together with glue made from her hoofs. We go to 

 our noon-day meal and have soup made from her tail. De- 

 licious roast beef, pumpkin pie that is sweetened with sugar 

 whitened with her blood, made out of pumpkins grown on land 

 fertilized with her bones; and I am told we often eat this with 

 teeth that through a chemical process have been made from her 

 paunch. 



She started her mission at Plymouth Rock, and tied be- 

 hind the old immigrant wagon, she followed man to the setting- 

 sun. It was her sons who drew the wagon that brought to this 

 country the early settler, and that turned the first sod. On her 

 journey as the family camped, and when they finally settled, 

 she picked up the straws that blew her way, and converted them 

 into milk that filled the mother's breast that nursed the child 



