ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 31 
guard the public against such fats is a problem beyond my 
comprehension. 
One of the largest oleomargarine dealers in N. Y. City 
has recently offered, as I am told, through the National 
Board of Trade, a thousand dollars for the three best essays 
on adulteration. 
Possibly those essays may explain to the public how 
they can safely eat oleomargarine. 
“ MILKMAIDS.” . 
BY MRS. FRANK CROSBY, OF ELGIN. 
ti 
Ik Marvel in his “ Wet Days at Edgewood ” spends 
the humid hours in his library. He pores over the vellum 
of antiquity, and finds that the Greeks and Romans knew 
quite as much about farming as authorities ranked compe¬ 
tent in these days and he cites passage after passage 
which reflects admirably their common sense in the man¬ 
agement of everything pertaining to farm life. He follows 
this bucolic vein down through the older French and 
English poets till, among the charming metamorphoses 
which his reading effects, he tells us. 
“ Through the prism of their verse, Patrick, the cattle- 
tender changes to a lithe milkmaid, against whose ankles 
the buttercups nod rejoicingly and wakes all Arden with a 
rich burst of laughter.” 
This is the milkmaid of tradition, picturesque, songful 
and laughter-loving, whose praise coming down the centur¬ 
ies has reached us through the notes oaten stop or 
pastoral song.” 
She it is, whose meridian glory was, doubtless, in the 
seventeenth century, the day of castes, processions and 
pageants, whose customs and costumes we ape novv^ on the 
stage, in tableaux, the carnival or the fancy ball. 
She it is, whom Milton, of that period, mentioned in 
his “ L’Allegro ” in this connection. 
“ While the plowman near at hand, 
Whistles over the furrowed land, 
