26 THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



By unanimous vote the report of the Secretary and Treasurer 

 was accepted and adopted. 



President Aitken: — The next article on the program is the address 

 of the President, and as there are two very important subjects to be 

 brought before us this afternoon I shall make that address as brief 

 as possible. 



President Aitken then said: 



President's Address. 



Members of the Vermont Dairymen's Association, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen: — As we meet again in this, the Queen City of our State, to 

 hold the thirty-fourth annual meeting of this Association, we can 

 look back with satisfaction at what has been accomplished. 



The fact that since its organization as the pioneer in dairy educa- 

 tion, it has grown from a small beginning to its present proportions 

 and has been copied by so many of our sister States, proves that its 

 inception was wise and far-seeing and that its influence for good has 

 not been confined to our own State. 



So that, we may feel justly proud that the Green Mountain State 

 originated a movement which has been of incalculable benefit to the 

 dairy interest of the whole country, and we must see to it that there 

 is no lagging behind in the march of improvement. We are still to 

 the front in the quality of our butter and the amount made per cow, 

 but there is room for vast improvement along this line. 



Our average is somewhere about 160 pounds per cow, and, while 

 I believe it is better than any other State, it is yet far from what 

 might be accomplished by careful and intelligent effort. 



In my estimation we should set the standard at just double what 

 it is now, and it seems to me that by following the same method of 

 competition which has brought our butter up to its present high 

 standard the best results will be gained. 



And when we dairymen take as much interest in having the best 

 cows as we now take in making the best butter, we will very soon 

 have a superior class of cattle that will be sought after at prices far 

 beyond anything we have heretofore seen. 



And to show that the farmer who is a student of nature and under- 

 stands his business is appreciated by scientific aand professional men, 

 I have only to mention one instance, where one of our plain, every 

 day Vermont farmers was asked to go to New York city and talk 

 to the doctors at the Academy of Medicine on the subject of Bovine 

 Tuberculosis, showing that these men who are making a life study 

 of this particular science, realized that this man was nearer nature 

 and, therefore, able to teach them in their own chosen field. 



Let us therefore take a greater interest in our work, cultivate a 

 more teachable spirit, be observant, "try all things and hold on to 



