In Praise Of Mediation?   . . . 

    You may have seen the famous print of the farmers fighting over a cow. One pulls the head, the other the tail, while the lawyer sitting on a stool milks the cow.  The folk singer John Kirkpatrick sang the song "The Farmers and the Cow", and his rendition is available on YouTube by clicking here.

    The chorus goes:

One Farmer pulled its head and the other one pulled its tail,
And over it they had a jolly row, hello,
And both to law they went, and all their money spent,
Whilst the lawyer kept a-milking of the cow, cow, cow,
Whilst the lawyer kept a-milking of the cow.

                A copy of the print that inspired the song is available from Wildy & Sons Ltd., law booksellers: