THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION was called to order by the first Vice-President, HON. ALNEY STONE, of Westford, at 10:15 A. M.

There was a fair sized audience present, which was largely increased as the morning local trains began to arrive.

Taken as a whole, this meeting was a more pronounced success than previous meetings. Throughout the whole time of the Convention there were always large audiences, nearly all farmers, whose wives and daughters in many instances had accompanied them.

The papers presented were fully up to, if not surpassing, in interest and instructiveness the high standard of those of previous meetings. The perfect weather, too, tended to enhance the large attendance.

JUDGE STONE having called the meeting to order, introduced the REV. DONALD S. MCKAY, of St. Albans, to invoke the divine blessing. MR. MCKAY delivered an eloquent, fervent prayer, in an impressive

manner.

It had been announced and was expected that HON. J. GREGORY SMITH Would deliver an Address of Welcome. On account of Gov. SMITH'S health he was unable to be present, and a most acceptable substitute was obtained in the presence of HoN. HOMER E. ROYCE, Ex-Chief Judge of Vermont.

MR. ROYCE said:

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THIS ASSOCIATION :-I see by your programme, it was advertised that Hon. J. Gregory Smith would present a formal address of welcome upon this occasion. He is prevented by indisposition from performing that duty. I regret it as much as you can, for I know we should have had an able and instructive address. Under these circumstances I have been invited by the Officers of your Association, within a short time to present an Address of Welcome to you upon this occasion.

I have had no time for adequate preparation of an address such as you are entitled to receive upon this occasion, even if I had the ability so to do. I might give you my experience in dairying, what little I have tried to accomplish in that direction while attending to my judicial duties, but that experience would afford no instruction to you. It might be entertaining, because it has resulted with me about the same as it does when they try to run two trains in opposite directions on the same track.

It was not expected that I should give you any advice in reference to the discharge of your duties upon this occasion, and I am not qualified to do it. Years ago-so many that I do not care to say how many-I used to address assemblies upon various subjects, but of late years my remarks have been in regard to other meetings. If I were called upon to address a jury, or to deliver a short lecture to some lawyers who had got outside the traces, I should feel I was treading my native heath;" but to address such an assembly as this upon the subject matters you are called upon to consider and discuss, I certainly at this time am not qualified to do so.

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Yet I ought to have something to say at a meeting of this Association, for I was present at its birth. A great many years ago we got together in the State House at Montpelier, a few of us, in one of the committee rooms, to devise some measures to improve the dairying and agricultural interests of the State. There were but a few of us, and I think that if I were called upon to prove the fact that I was there, it would be difficult, for most of my then associates have passed away. But we formed this organization there, and that was the germ of the present Association, which has grown to be a strong and flourishing society. I know for years it had a struggle for life—just kept the breath of life in its body-but its members persevered until now you have come to be a power for good in and to this State. You may well be proud of your Association.

Your work is the most important and valuable educator to the farmers of Vermont. The result of it is seen in the inteligent application of improved methods, and the use of improved facilities, bringing about more profitable returns for the labor. The efforts of this Association must meet with perfect success, because intelligent labor is bound to succeed. In Vermont, we have every condition requisite to success in dairying. True, we have to meet competition, but with the natural advantages of our State, if we

avail ourselves of them, and apply intelligent labor in the selection and care of stock, to the lessening of the expense of manufacturing dairy products, and to the securing of the best market, I think we can compete successfully, not only with the great West, and the Provinces, but with the world.

As I said, I have no advice to offer; I could offer none that would be of practical value to you. You will receive it during your sessions from men abundantly capable of imparting it, men who will occupy your time more profitably than I can.

The advice-so un

One matter I may be permitted to allude to. fortunate to Vermont-of Horace Greeley's, "Go West." Unfortunate because it has robbed Vermont of some of its best blood. They have gone West, and I believe very many now regret that they ever left the home of their fathers. A year or two ago I met a gentleman at Brattleboro. He came into the hotel; he appeared to be thin and careworn. A number of the friends of his youth gathered around to give him a Vermont greeting on his return from the West. They inquired when he was going to return. He said, "Never!" They said, "we thought you were pleased with the country and were prospering." "Well," said he, "it is a good country in many respects, fertile and easily tilled, and all that, but," says he, " about a month before I left, there came one of those blizzards along; it took my buildings all down, tore up my fences and fruit trees that I had spent years of labor upon, endeavoring to get into bearing condition; in short, it stripped my farm of everything but the mortgage; I believe I shall leave that to take care of itself, and live the rest of my life, and die in Vermont."

I believe that if you could get at the actual experiences of many of our people who have gone from Vermont to the windswept prairies of the West, they would be glad to get back to Vermont if they could let the mortgage go, and come to live and die near the homes of their fathers. I think it is our duty, as far as we can, to induce the young people of the State to remain in it; do what we can to make the homes of Vermont farmers comfortable, their lives enjoyable, and their work profitable. Do that, and we shall prevent the Westward flow of emigration from Vermont. hope and trust such may be the result.

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I thank you for the honor you have done me in calling upon me to address you. Permit me once more to heartily wish you wel

come.

JUDGE ROYCE's remarks evoked hearty applause, and the VicePresident said:

GENTLEMEN OF THE ASSOCIATION: -I feel my inability to properly respond to the remarks of the honorable gentleman towards whom for so many years I have entertained the most friendly regard and the greatest respect. It has always been my motto, however, when I had a duty to perform-I will do it to my best ability.

So, Sir, permit me, in behalf of the Association, to thank you for your hearty words of welcome. I feel that in coming here to St. Albans, we are coming home; for in this town was held the first meeting of our Association; it was held in the Welden House. I well remember, too, our first meeting at the Capitol, when we got together to organize this Association, and the honorable gentleman who has just spoken presided over that meeting. I hope we may realize benefits ourselves, and that our efforts may result in a benefit and prosperity to the Agricultural interests of the State, that blessings may come to us and to our children, and our children's chil. dren. We are united together for a mutual interest and mutual advantage; may both increase. It is true, as the honorable gentleman has said, our best blood, our best bone and sinew, has gone to furnish men to the great West, but there is still enough of the same stock left at home to reclaim our native State. To those young men we say, look forward with a bright anticipation, for surely there is a glorious future for our dear little State.

I hope our Association may continue to grow and advance, and under the guidance of Him who "Tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," I think we may look forward to success in the future.

I believe it is a rule that your President shall present to you an Annual Address, and as acting-President, I will proceed to give you a short address. It will not occupy your time but a few moments.

ADDRESS OF FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT.

The question of the hour is, how shall we best promote the interests of those in our State who follow dairy husbandry for their occupation in agriculture? There has been great improvement in the manufacture of milk into butter and cheese since the organization of this Association, and that improvement is felt in a marked degree wherever the goods have been put upon the market and disseminated far and wide as the renowned products of the State of Vermont. But this improvement has been in a large degree more in quality of product than in quantity produced. This has been the effect of the co-operative plan of butter and cheese factories where there has been skilled labor employed in the manufacture of the goods. But how shall we increase the product and thereby promote the interest of dairy husbandry in Vermont, is the question.

The tiller of the soil that has a mind to work and has intelligence to apply that work on his land to produce the best results will almost universally succeed in his business. Where he cut one ton of hay at beginning he will soon cut two tons, and increase in cows upon his farm in the same ratio that the application of well directed labor and fertilizers to the mineral will have to the vegetable, and the vegetable to the animal kingdom. I remember well when I was

younger than I am now-say sixty years ago - that a boy did not need much of an education to be a farmer. It was time and money thrown away, was often said by the old settlers of our towns in Vermont. But I rejoice that those perverted ideas are among the bygone days.

I think farmers' boys should have as good an education as they can get. I would have every son of Vermont fitted to enter college, feeling that he was the better qualified to be a good farmer for the acquired ability he might be possessed of. The great trouble has been for the last forty years in Vermont that restless, dissatisfied feeling, thinking there was a better place somewhere else, that they could live easier than work on a farm, and if a man is dissatisfied /with his business or occupation he is worth but little for himself or anybody else. The spirit at that time raged so high that it became an adage that the "Yankee's home and place of rest was just a little farther West." But at this time it can make no difference whether he is in old New England or in the far-famed West. There is ample room for the full and free development of all his intellectual powers and there is an obligation binding upon every free man in this American republic that he should inform himself so he can be free to think, and free to act, and have a right to feel he is a component part of the best government the sun ever shone upon.

The State of Vermont to-day has better facilities for the diffusion of knowledge in the various departments of agriculture than the masses are willing to accept. If we have schools provided and those who should be benefitted do not attend, it is no fault of the school that they do not make progress in the various sciences taught in that school. But the school of experience will bring them to their senses. As we hear the universal cry of "hard times," we are led to inquire the causes that produced this result. I am inclined to think the fault lies at your own door. You have lived faster than your income would support. If you earned 50 cents a day and lived fast enough to demand 75, you were in debt 25 cents more at the end of every day in the month, which will amount to $7.50 at the end of every 30 days, or $90 a year. Now, this is not a large sum, but follow this kind of economy for twenty years and what is the result? A debt of over $2.000. Now by this time experience has taught us that this kind of economy had better be turned out of our households, if we would consult our own interests, and a new order of things instituted.

Now, how shall it be done? is the question. The people of Vermont, or a large majority of them, are following dairy husbandry for a living, and we have about 250,000 cows in Vermont, and each cow produces 3,000 pounds of milk for nine months, or 11 1-9 pounds a day for that length of time, which at $25 per cow makes $6,250,000. Now, $25 per cow for a year's income from twenty cows will be $500. This may look small but it is as high as the average will bear in Vermont. And we were told two years ago that 3,034 lbs. per cow was as high as the average in the State of New York, and Commissioner Brown told us that by judicious management the average could be