140 THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Governor McCullougli. — Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been repaid 

 for coming up here in listening to the very interesting, effective and able 

 address of Mr. Van Dresser. I have been the loser by reason of the 

 indefiniteness of my friend, Mr. Aitken, who wrote me a letter a few 

 days ago saying that the convention of the Sugar Makers, Dairymen, 

 Horticultural and Foresters' Associations was to be here from the 5th 

 to the 7th, and wound up by saying there was to be a banquet to termi- 

 nate the meeting, and I came to the conclusion that the banquet was 

 on this evening instead of last evening, and I am the loser by either 

 his mistake or my own. I am the loser in more respects than one. 

 I started from the Atchison meeting yesterday about six o'clock in the' 

 evening and going up on the electrics at the north end of New York at 

 night the cars are always crowded; going down in the morning they are 

 crowded; this car I was on was packed. I got up between Thirty-third 

 and Forty-second streets and I saw a young lady standing, I beckoned 

 to her and as I got up she sat down. I tried to elbow my way out. 

 When I got near the door I wanted to go through I thought some one 

 tried to stop me, and when I finally did get out my purse was gone and 

 I came very near not getting here at all. I was a loser in more re- 

 spects than one. When I got here I looked across to see if Congress- 

 man Foster was here; I did not see him, but I saw Congressman 

 Adams and probably he will tell Foster this story. Mr. Aitken asked me 

 to come up here and told me I would have the pleasure of listening to 

 Governor Hoard, Congressman Adams, Mr. Van Dresser, Professor 

 Decker and all the others and wound up by saying: "Besides all that, 

 Congressman Foster is going to preside at the banquet; don't fail to be 

 here." 



Well, I had known Brother Foster. I wish he was here; I was think- 

 ing of it coming up on the train; that is the reason I am stating it now. 

 I had known him from his youth up, as an able lawyer, as an able 

 financier. I had known him as the ablest Congressman of this State, 

 with perhaps the exception of Haskins. I had known him, as he used to 

 express it, as one of the most influential men of the lower House of 

 Congress, the ablest body on earth, as Adams would agree (unless 

 Proctor or Dillingham was here), but I had never known Brother 

 Foster as a dairyman, although I had been with him at several con- 

 ventions of this nature, and at one time I had thought he was not so 

 well posted as I was because he said: "Mr. McCullough, I wish you 

 would tell me — I know a good deal of Jerseys, Holsteins, Ayershires, 

 etc., that Mr. Van Dresser has been talking about — but I wish you 

 would tell me which breed he said was the best milk producer." I an- 

 swered readily; I told him I believe it was either the Shropshires or the 

 Chester Whites. He said: "There is Mr. Spear and the maple sugar 

 makers. Now I see different sized maple sugar cakes all over the 

 table and I suppose the size of the cake depends upon the size of the 

 maple tree, but I would like to know what kind of a tree the sap comes 



