FORMING A EULOGY

For many years I have felt that the old cow chip of the hay meadow and prairie has never been given the recognition that it earned and deserved for the simple reason it usually was available, unless rain or snow covered the ground. Much of the time the old cow chip was the only fuel the pioneers could depend upon as a winter's supply of fuel in a treeless country.

The cow chips were unique and conspicu-ous by their shapes and sizes. Some were no larger than a large cup while others proved so big that you had to break them in two to stuff them into a gunny sack. In thickness, they ranged from a pancake to three and four inches.

As to their production, the heavier the grass was where the load was dropped, the better the chip was for burning. Many of the chips that were pulled up looked like large turtles with the grass protruding from the sides. Some of them had large bubbles underneath them due to the air that was trapped as it was dropped. The seasons also had much to do with their value for burning, especially in the fall when the cattle had access to the abundance of plums that grew along the creeks in those days. When you found a chip that was about half plum pits you had a very much desired burning article that burnt just like coal and generated a very hot fire which lasted far longer than the ordinary chip.

A fully cured and dried chip had practically no odor at all. If you found one that had escaped being pulled up the previous year, the chances were that it was infested with a small brown and white beetle. An if you were unfortunate enough not to detect them and haul them into your old soddy, you were in trouble. They scattered all over the house and gave you much trouble. My gosh, how they could bite you on the ankle or the top of your feet.

Oh, those were the good old never-to-be-forgotten days. Those were the days when everyone was a friend to each other. The old timer had a respect and devotion for others due to the hardships and poverty that each endured, that no other generation has even been able to develop.