34 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
and customs the milkmaid has been one of the last to yield 
her place. 
“ A few years ago, in London, the only trace of the 
old custom of going a-Maying were the garlands of the 
milkmaids and the Jack-in-the-green of the sweeps. The 
garland (so called) was made of silver plate, borrowed for 
the day and fastened upon a sort of pyramid. 
Accompanying this droll garland were the maids 
themselves in gay dress, with ribbons and flowers; and at¬ 
tended by musicians who played for them to dance in the 
streets. 
Sometimes a cow was dressed in festive array, with 
bouquets and ribbons on her horns, neck and tail and over 
her back a net stuck full of flowers. Thus highly orna¬ 
mented the meek creature was led through the streets. 
A sad coming down, indeed, from the time when the milk¬ 
maid assisted at the festivities around the May-pole in hei 
native village, when lords and ladies, as well as king and 
queen laid aside their state to rear its leafy crown ! 
From what has been cited we may see that we can 
predicate of the representative milkmaid very enviable 
qualities. 
She was frank, simple, comely, rosy-hued with health, 
graceful, tidy, contented, sweet-tempered and lively, indus¬ 
trious, honest, persevering, devoted to business, proud of 
her calling, tenacious of purpose, duly ambitious, all of 
which she could hardly have been, had she been 
avaricious. 
She has never been naturalized on American soil any 
more than have the skylark and the nightingale, nor is she 
the exact prototype of the dairy-women—the farmer’s wife 
and daughters and the “ hired help,” (barring the foreign 
element) that till more recent times, sustained the credit of 
the dairy interest in this country. 
Our dairy woman added a large intelligence to the 
good traits enumerated and was more likely to be heard 
singing religious or patriot songs daily, for her training led 
her to believe she owed an abiding loyalty to God and her 
country. 
