26 Thirty-Sixth Annual Repokt of the 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Members of the Vermont Dairymen's Association, Ladies 

 and Gentlemen : This thirty-sixth annual meeting of our Asso- 

 ciation has now convened in the Queen City of our State upon 

 invitation of His Honor, Mayor Burke, and we have been accorded 

 most excellent accommodations for our meetings and exhibits 

 through the courtesy of Ex. -Gov. U. A. Woodbury. We feel 

 assured that this meeting will excel all others in point of at- 

 tendance, enthusiasm and practical helpfulness. 



How quickly the year of 1905 has passed! It seems but a 

 day since we were in session at Montpelier. How well we re- 

 member that meeting with its large attendance, its interesting 

 exhibitions of dairy products and of dairy and farm machinery. 

 More than this, we remember the practical and pointed papers to 

 which we listened, the animated discussions which followed them, 

 and the close and enthusiastic attention on every side. Many of 

 these subjects have been discussed over and over again in our 

 Granges, our Farmers' Clubs, — yes, and in our homes and places 

 of business as well. Many of us have applied the improved 

 methods there advocated to our farm work, to the care of our 

 stock and to the handling of our dairies and creameries. All this 

 agitation and stir is a sure indication of growth, — the teaching of 

 the farmer is but a preliminary to the improving of the farm and 

 the things pertaining thereto. Careful examination of reports 

 and statistics for the year will fully bear out the statement that 

 "Greater progress has been made by the farmer during the year 

 of 1905 than ever before." Why ! the estimated value of dairy 

 products of the United States is $665,000,000, or $54,000,000 

 more than the year before ; poultry products, too, are valued at 

 more than a half billion dollars. The total wealth production on 

 the farms amounts in value to more than $6,415,000,000. 



These estimates are for the whole country ; but have not 

 Vermont farmers shared proportionately in this progress and 

 prosperity ? Most certainly they have ; information obtained 

 from the State press, from observation and from various other 

 sources prove this conclusively. Never has there been such a 

 showing for the farmer as at present. We are surely having a 

 more intelligent, a more intensive agriculture; buildings, as well 



