52 agriculture; of maine. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME IN BEHALF OF DEXTER 



GRANGE, AND THE AGRICULTURAL AND DAIRY 



INTERESTS OF DEXTER. 



By F. O. Additon. 



Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Maine Dairymen's Asso- 

 ciation: 



After the able words to which you have listened, of course 

 you do not wish or expect a stated speech from me. Neither 

 do I rise for the purpose of adding any emphasis to the words 

 of welcome which the gentlemen that preceded me has just 

 uttered. W'e know him to be amply able to voice the sentiment 

 of our citizens in welcoming you to our town and its hospitali- 

 ties. But in behalf of Dexter Grange, which helps make up 

 that great organization of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, 

 of which I am a member, and its representative, I would bid 

 you welcome. What grand thoughts, what great possibilities 

 cluster around our order! We know what it has been in the 

 past and is today, to the farmers, and its scope is ever broaden- 

 ing along the lines of usefulness to our fellow men. When a 

 little over two score years ago the National Grange was organ- 

 ized in the city of Washington it was spoken of by the press 

 only for purposes of ridicule; but now, with a membership 

 numbering nearly as many souls as did "the thirteen original 

 colonies when they met and rolled back the waves of tyranny 

 upon Old England, it has just closed a session in the city of its 

 birth, and its honors are as broad as the nation itself. Its mem- 

 bers were given a reception by President Roosevelt at his council 

 board, and listened to in the affairs of the nation. Dexter 

 Grange with its 500 members is only a mite in this great organ- 

 ization, but it is striving to do its part in the great work that 

 stands for higher and better manhood, better intellectually and 

 morally, higher as our teachings bring us into closer relation- 

 ship to the great Creator who sends us both rain and 

 sunshine, and whose teachings are, "As ye sow so shall ye reap." 

 But why explain all this to you members of the Maine Dairy- 



