DAIRY MEETING. 1 25. 



expenses. The most discouraging thing that the farmer today- 

 has to meet is the question of taxation. The Cana(han people 

 are taught today that they cannot afford to have any money in 

 the savings bank. The money that would ordinarily be in- 

 vested in their savings banks ought to be invested in their farms. 

 If the Maine farmer makes an effort to improve his farm build- 

 ings or his plant in any way, shape or manner, his taxes come 

 up to a ruinous rate, while his city brother invests his money 

 in property that has to pay no taxes. Now if the city bred man 

 wishes to be of any use to his brother farmer, his brother 

 countryman, he has got to stop taxing him away beyond his 

 proportion of the burden. T think that is one of the first and 

 fundamental things that we must do. In the city we have a 

 method of education. We teach all of our city boys to be 

 druggists and dry goods men and lawyers and bankers and 

 physicians, etc., but in return for the tremendous tax rate that 

 the countryman or the farmer has to pay, we teach his boy to 

 be exactly the same thing, whereas we should teach him to be 

 a farmer, and to understand the first principles of chemistry, of 

 biology, and of bacteriology, that today are so essential in the 

 education of every farmer. 



It would be the height of folly for me to go on and tell you 

 the things, or a part of the things, that every farmer knows per- 

 fectly well. As a matter of fact the city men that are making a 

 move — and it is a laudable move, they believe in the things they 

 are doing — are just as far today from the needs of the farmer 

 as they were 10, 15 or 20 years ago, before this movement set 

 in. The things that are going to be done for the farmer are not 

 the things that the city men are going to do for him but the 

 things he is going to do for himself. 



I thank you for inviting me to talk tonight. 



Mr. W. H. Davis, 

 Editor Maine Farmer. 



I assure you that it is a distinct pleasure for me to be here 

 on this occasion and have the privilege of saying a few words 

 to this company. The toastmaster said that he was going to 



