of Vermont, can be told much better by the president, Mr. Arms, than by me; but we all understand that it has been one of the things that has brought the nations of the earth to a closer brotherhood, and has been the largest and best exhibition ever held in the world. In accordance with the custom of all good business men who at least once a year take stock, the Dairymen's Association has come here for the purpose of gathering together and seeing what the results of last year's work have been. Last year the man who had succeeded in bringing a dairy of cows of 20 or more to produce an average of more than 400 pounds of butter each came before the Association and told us how he did it; told us what he did and why he did it, and what the result was. That every man who heard could go home and undertake to make his cows produce more than 400 pounds is not to be expected; but it is expected that a lesson will come to every man from it. We are told that there is a town in this state where the average dairy cow has produced 259 pounds of butter in the last year. We are told that there is a town in this state where the average product of each cow was less than 100 pounds. Now there is a reason for this somewhere, and we hope that the representative men from each of these towns will come up and tell us how it was and why it was; and how they did it where they got 259 pounds of butter per cow. Every single individual who attends to the details of his dairy business as a merchant attends to the details of his business, or as the manufacturer attends to the details of his business, will see to it that there is no loss and no waste, and will see that his business is being conducted at a profit instead of a loss. A few years ago a man was able to sell a trotting horse for $105,000. The result of that ought to be a lesson; it has damaged the country wonderfully in the production of horses; I don't know how it is in most parts of this state, but in the vicinity where I live, we have to yard our horses, and the horses that are bred from fast trotters are so numerous that it is a hard thing to shut the gate. the yards are so full of colts; they are all over-run with that kind of stock. Such is likely to be the result of making cows give 400 pounds of butter. Some one has said that a sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating a mistake. Forty years ago, butter in this section was made during the summer months, packed in firkins and set in a cool place, and in the fall or early winter was marketed. To-day the market demands a wholly different arcticle; the object of the dairyman to-day is to get the produce into the market and on to the table of the consumer at just as early an hour as possible, and in this he is aided by the advanced methods of communication and of transportation to the market. The modern improvements in this respect make this possible even when the manufacturer is located a long distance from the market. In the progress that is being made all over the country by dairymen, those of Vermont must keep pace. I am a true Vermonter and I am proud I was born a Green Mountain boy; I love the grand old hills of Vermont, but I never appreciated them so fully as I did this last fall, after a trip through Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. I had made the same trip 38 years ago, but wonderful changes have been wrought there since then; what was then a territory full of buffaloes and elk, a fine hunting-ground for the hunter and trapper, is to-day covered with valuable farms. In central Iowa where I was best acquainted, land was then being sold by Uncle Sam for a dollar and a quarter an acre that is to-day selling for $60 to $70 an acre; but everything that tended to make the home comfortable and the home life happy was then wanting, and I came back to the beautiful homes and surroundings in Vermont; and everything seemed present that tended to make this life desirable, and I was ready to shout "Hurrah for old Vermont and her cloudcap't granite hills!" I had the same feeling when I returned from my trip last year. We will now listen to the annual address by the president, Mr. Arms. THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a pleasure to me to come to a place where we as individuals and as an Association are so heartily welcomed as we are at Burlington. As my colleague has well said, when we were invited here to your beautiful city, while it may have occurred to some of us, that we were coming to the seat of knowledge, it was to all of us as members and officers of the Association, a pleasure, for when we come to Burlington we feel as if we were coming home. We thought it was possible that by coming to this seat of knowledge some of the "droppings of the sanctuary" might fall on us and benefit us, and that perhaps by some remote possibility some words of wisdom might fall from the lips of some of us that might even help those engaged in the higher walks of life. I say it was a pleasure for us to come here, for we have met such a hearty and cordial reception, for which we thank you. Five years ago the Vermont Dairymen's Association met in this same hall; it was the first year that we were enjoying aid from the state and it was the first year that it was my privilege to meet with the dairymen of Vermont, though it was not the first year that I had known of their organization or had attempted to be present with them. A variety of circumstances had kept me away from the meetings; I was away from the state at the time of its organization and a long time afterwards. But from that day to this it has been a pleasure to every one of us as members of the Association to see the progress the organization has made. Struggling as it did for 21 years without state aid-depending entirely on the exertions and efforts and the money of its members and that which was given by people interested in the success of the Association—on to its feet; struggling along under all this lack of advantages, it had achieved for itself a reputation and a position at that time of which it might well be proud. With the aid from the state it has since received, the Association, I am proud to say, has become one of the leading organizations of the state and perhaps the most useful, as an organization, among farmers. When we discuss the dairy interests of Vermont we come to the one interest that overtops every other, for I may safely say it takes the lead of the other interests of the state. Three years ago at the meeting at St. Albans the honor was conferred upon me of being made president of the Association. From that day to this the cordiality of the members of the Association and the kindness that its officers have shown me have rendered my connection with the Association exceedingly pleasant. There has been present such a degree of harmony in the Association and such a “pulling together" as has resulted in a most agreeable experience. I regret to say that our faithful secretary cannot be with us; I have just received a letter from his wife saying that he has been seriously ill, and although he has recovered from the malady sufficiently to be able to be here he is detained by reason of the death of his mother-in-law who is to-be buried to-morrow. There has been a good deal for the officers to do, but we who have been your servants as officers of the Association have found the work a pleasant burden to carry. I should like to take the time to let you know what has been accomplished by the Association since that meeting at St. Albans and what we have done, but I will not take your time any further than to state that when the meeting at St. Albans broke up and the expenses had been paid we found that there was a shortage, to the tune of $400. This is a matter that has not been mentioned to anybody outside of the members of the organization and would not be alluded to now except in this connection; the treasurer and some of the friends of the Association put their private note in the bank to carry the Association along over its financial difficulty. I take a special pride in saying that the debt has been paid, as well as every debt the Association owed, and while the funds we have received have enabled us to carry on our meetings with unabated interest, we have a small balance in our favor in the treasury. At our last meeting at Morrisville we had a hall not so capacious as this and the mercury was 30° below zero, and some days it did not get up to zero all day; but the hall was filled full, and on the evening of the second day we had to have an overflow meeting in one of the churches. During the nine sessions of those three days, notwithstanding a large number could not secure seats, the audience was always orderly and attentive. I speak of this simply to show you the interest which. is being taken in our meetings. We are going to have that same condition of affairs in Burlington; we shall fill this hall so full that there will be scarcely standing room and we shall do all in our power to make the meeting a successful one. You will be addressed by practical farmers and dairymen, who will relate to you their methods in other sections of the country. What has been accomplished during the last year? It may not be inappropriate for me to speak of what was accomplished at the World's Fair. We are handicapped in that line because we have no way to get at the official returns; we have what we believe to be approximately correct returns. I understand every state in the Union claims to have the first, so that we will not make that claim; Vermont is noted for its extreme modesty; there was no competition between any one state and another in that exhibition. A few days ago I was in a neighboring state at their dairymen's meeting, and when the meeting was opened in the morning, the chaplain thanked the Lord that that state had beaten the world in the exhibit of butter at the World's Fair; he didn't put it in those words, but it was easy to see that was what he meant. And the governor of that state got up to address that meeting and he also returned thanks that the state had "got there". The president of the Association also offered up thanks that the state had got ahead of every other state in the Union. We make no claim for what Vermont has done in beating any other state in the Union, but we do claim and have the figures to show that during the entire exhibit, in every one of the four months, Vermont was in the lead every month with her scores; that is all we claim for her. The general average on which was based the assertion made in a neighboring state is an incorrect statement. There was a wonderful exhibit of butter from the western states, and the state of Nebraska, by a very small decimal, led the entire world in a general average; it was a surprise to a great many people, no less than to the people of Nebraska themselves. One peculiarity of the Nebraska butter was this: You know that butter made in Vermont is just as ready to be eaten when it is 24 hours old, and a little more ready than at any other time; but Nebraska butter is better at ten days or a fortnight old than it is at 24 hours old; it seems to acquire a better flavor by the lapse of time. We shall have with us during this meeting a gentleman from Nebraska and one from Iowa; you may ask them to verify my assertions. There is a certain representitive of the animal, or rather the vegetable, kingdom that gets into the butter, and it goes by the name of bacteria; it is said that the bacteria on the frontier of Nebraska is exceedingly slow in development-if that is so it is the only thing that is slow out there--and that may account for it. I think that is a mistake, and if I had a theory at all in regard to the matter I should ascribe it to the food of that country; the manner that the grass rises in Nebraska gives to it a very dry, solid and nutritious quality as food. But I came here to boast of Vermont if I boasted of any state, and so I deny that Vermont or any other state beat any state, but I do affirm that Vermont led. I simply want to impress that on you, that Vermont led, as will be acknowledged by any honest representative of any other state, who was at Chicago. It was a pleasure to me to represent the state of Vermont and the Vermont dairymen in Chicago and to be told that we had scores higher than any other state in the Union. But there is a great danger in taking too high scores; there is a tendency to rest from our efforts to achieve superiority. It often happens that intelligent people who get a low score, work hard to improve it. Two years ago I induced a man to send a tub of butter to Brattleboro to compete for a prize; it took a good deal of urging, but he tried it and he scarcely scored above the dead line; he got a few cents on a pro-rata prize that was given by the Association. When he got home he looked over his score and said, "I will see wherein I have failed." He found out wherein his butter was imperfect, and at the last winter's meeting he entered a package of butter that scored within three-quarters of a point of the prize that took the gold medal of this Association. People who score low have an advantage; they have something to strive for; but, as I said, when we think we are making perfect butter and perfect cheese we are inclined to rest there, or to go backward instead of forward. We must strive to retain We must keep Vermont at the head. our laurels or they will be taken from us. unless we are making better and better goods. for another Columbian Exhibition to compare our goods with the rest of the world to find out which is the best. Before closing I desire to say that during this meeting there will be offered an opportunity for the formation of a Ladies' Auxiliary Association in connection with the Dairymen's Association. So that the women of Vermont will have the advantage which up to the present time has almost been monopolized by the men. The meeting will be held in the parlors of the Van Ness House at 9 o'clock to-morrow morning. I thank you for your kind attention, and if there is no business to come up at this session we will take a recess until 2 o'clock. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION. The meeting was called to order at 2 o'clock P. M. by President Arms, who said: |