56 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Strong, remember that the utterances of sincerity have ever been 

 permitted to the voice of friendship. The city of Auburn opens 

 wide her gates, and in the name of every citizen I bid you a 

 cordial welcome to our hearthstones and our hearts. 



RESPONSE. 

 By W. G. HuNTON, Readfield. 



I am pleased to accept the hospitality of this city, which has 

 been so heartily and poetically extended to us, in behalf of the 

 Maine Dairymen's Association. And I wish to say to Brother 

 Bateman right here that we farmers feel ourselves perfectly 

 able to stand all the prosperity which he has predicted for us 

 in the future. 



I think that we have met here at this time under most pro- 

 pitious circumstances. We have tasted before of the hospitality 

 of the city of Auburn, and we know how good it is. We have 

 left our barns filled to the ridge poles with proper feed for the 

 cows, and we have the promise and the expectation of a good 

 demand for our product the coming winter at renumerative 

 prices. We have looked forward to this meeting for a year, 

 and we have come, I have no doubt, to make the most of it, 

 to get all the instruction and enjoyment we can. This branch 

 of agriculture in the State of ]\Iaine has been, perhaps, one of 

 the latest branches to recognize that great business principle 

 which all other trades and professions have long since recog- 

 nized, that of banding themselves together, by the interchange 

 of ideas and experience to strengthen themselves in the particu- 

 lar work in which they are engaged. The different products 

 of our dairies have advanced in the last two decades from a 

 luxury to a necessity, and with this advance has been a corres- 

 ponding and rightful demand for a cleaner and better product 

 at better prices. We farmers now recognize that we must find 

 out by the shortest cut possible how to furnish that product 

 as the consumer wants it. It takes us too long to learn by our 

 own experience. 



We must call to our aid the laboratory and the assistance of 

 scientific men, to show us the whvs and wherefores of our busi- 



