ANNUAL MEETING. * 83 



It is with much pleasure and pride that 1 introduce to you the 

 distin^ished Governor of the great State of Indiana, W. T. 

 Durbin. 



Governor Durbin addressed the meeting. 



The following address was made by the President, J. E. Mc- 

 Donald : 



Gentlemen— In accordance with custom well established and almost 

 unbroken, I take this opportunity to address you upon matters of mutual 

 interest, and to g:\ve you an account of my stewardship. I entered upon 

 the discharge of my duties as chief executive of the Indiana State Board 

 of Agriculture with much misgiving, and I now draw near to the end of 

 my labor in this position witli a sense that if I have not had a full measure 

 of success. I have done what at all times seemed to be my duty. 



The opening year of the twentieth century has come. It has closed Its 

 cycle, and we can now contemplate its history. A year of unexampled 

 progress and prosperity, the tide of production having risen beyond all 

 previous marks to meet the ever increasing and growing demands of the 

 consumer. The farmer, with his bountiful crops and productive pastures, 

 added millions to the growing wealth of the Avorld, and the mines gave up 

 their treasures in profusion almost without stint. Every branch of Amer- 

 ican industry has been stimulated by the uniiaralleled activity, labor has 

 been in great demand at a gratifying increase in wages, money has come 

 from its hiding place and has been in competition with invested capital, 

 interest has fallen from competition of the money lender, and real estate 

 of all kinds has advanced in worth, as measured by other conditions. On 

 every hand, we note the evidence of good times and a disposition to make 

 the most of the opportunity. 



While these gratifying conditions have been general, and far reaching, 

 no American community has been more kindly treated by Dame Fortune 

 than has our own great State of Indiana. The horn of plenty has been 

 emptied into hei- lap, as it were, and upon every hand we catch the glad 

 note of thanksgiving for manifold blessings that have come to the mer- 

 chant, the artisan, the professional man, the laborer, the stockman, and 

 the farmer. Bountiful crops and a growing demand for all of the products 

 of the soil have given confidence and riches to the farmer. A demand 

 that comes from his prosperity has poured riches Into the coffers of the 

 manufacturer. It has been a gratifying year for the stock industry, mark- 

 ing a new era in the interest of live stock improvements and reproduction, 

 and shows a full measure of prosperity for this great and growing source 

 of state and personal wealth. The causes that have brought about these 

 gratifying, and I hope to be long continued conditions, are manifold, but I 

 leave this part of the discussion to those who have more time and a 



