VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 95 



Thursday Afternoon. 



Meeting called to order by the President who introduced 

 Gov. Hoard who spoke on the subject: 



WHAT SHOULD THE CREAMERY DO IN THE PRO- 

 MOTION OP THE INTERESTS OP ITS PATRONS. 



Ex-Gov. W. D. Hoard, Ft. Atkinson, Wis. 



I have always been an enthusiastic worker in whatever I did 

 and enthusiasm is the only oil I know that will lubricate the 

 machinery. One of my boys once complained of me, when I 

 shook him — he said, "Fattier, why you shake just as though 

 you meant it," and I think myself that it may be I carried it 

 beyond just the true limitation, because of the energy of con- 

 viction which I have on all questions. I do not think in 

 all the sixty-three years of my life I have ever been as much 

 of a student as I am today; and I do not remember a time in 

 my life when it has seemed to me that I knew less, or when 

 what I knew has seemed so small and what I did not know, so 

 big. This great dairy question has so many ramifications about 

 it that it is like a great spider's web with a center and all 

 these threads running into it. It embraces such a vast field 

 of knowledge, study and information, and there is so much to 

 do that I am in the fix of the old Irishman who, when they 

 were talking to him about bacteria said, "Oh, Holy Mother, I 

 wonder how any of my ancestors ever lived." 



The question upon which I am going to talk to you today 

 will be treated in a desultory manner and I shall have to de- 

 pend upon the stenographer to catch me as best she can and 

 give me a chance to look it over afterwards. 



I have striven to correct my judgement on dairy questions 

 by the most direct means. I do not want to be a man who is 

 all theory, nor do I believe a man should be all practice, but 

 with theory and practice he may possibly arrive at a just con- 

 clusion. And so I have invested in this creamery business 

 with my son, a good many thousand dollars. We have one 

 central plant in Fort Atkinson which cost $25,000 and we 

 have other smaller creameries in the surrounding towns. 

 Surrounding them, on the average, is a clientage of about 

 one hundred farms, and the ten creameries handle the milk of 



