126 AGRICULTURE OF MAIN'E. 



RESPONSE. 



Herbert M. Tucker, Canton. 



As President of the "Maine Dairy Association, it seems to 

 devolve upon me this year to respond to the address of wel- 

 come. In coming here tonight I do not represent wholly the 

 Maine Dairymen's Association, but also its two lusty, full 

 grown children, the Maine Seed Improvement Association and 

 the Maine Live Stock Breeders' Association. We join each 

 year in mutual meeting because we are of one family; we are 

 working along different lines, but all are working for the good 

 of Maine agriculture. 



Now, it has been said that, when a person begins to look back 

 to the past, he is growing old ; but how can we, as a nation, as 

 a state, as an association or as individuals, plan our course for 

 the future if we do not occasionally stop and look back over 

 the past ? I well remember my boyhood days and the conditions 

 as they existed at that time. I see a great many people before 

 me tonight who can remember back a great deal farther than I, 

 but conditions are such that I can perhaps remember thirty or 

 thirty-five years ago and recall conditions at that time as well 

 as any one of my age, from the simple fact that my father, 

 being in very poor health, was obliged to draw me early into 

 service and I became acquainted with the stern realities of life 

 when quite young. I can well remember a morning — several 

 months before I was fifteen years of age--when my father 

 called me to him and said, "Bert, you are doing all the work 

 that is being done on the farm, and it is no more than right 

 that you should go ahead and do as you think best. Here is 

 the family pocketbook ; there isn't much in it, but all there is is 

 yours, and now go ahead." From that time until now I have 

 known what it means to support a family. I am speaking of 

 the personal matters simply because these early recollections of 



