president's address. 9 



tute work in our State than we have ever known in the past. If 

 there ever was a time when we needed good institute work in 



Vermont it is now. 



WESTERN COMPETITION. 



The eastern dairyman is being hard pushed by the 

 westerner. The same amount of feed, fed to an equally 

 good cow, in Minnesota or Dakota will make as many 

 pounds of butter as it would if fed in Vermont. While feeds 

 are from two to three times as high here as there, their butter 

 can be placed upon New York market at less than one cent a 

 pound for transportation in excess of ours. A few years ago but 

 little butter was made in Minnesota. L,ast year she produced 

 over 50,000,000 pounds of butter and 5,000,000 pounds of cheese. 

 Nearly two and one half million dollars worth of butter and 

 cheese were sold in South Dakota. New creameries are constantly 

 being built in these and other western States. We need the in- 

 stitute workers to teach us how to stop the wastes upon our farms, 

 and how to make our dairy products at a less cost. We should 

 grow all the starch element, or carbohydrates, we need at home. 

 When we can raise 5,000 pounds of starch in an acre of corn and 

 preserve it almost without waste in the silo, in a palatable 

 form, why buy western corn and pay the freight ? We can buy 

 feeds rich in protein, like linseed or cotton-seed meals, to bal- 

 ance our rations, nearly. as cheaply as can the western dairy- 

 man. With proper care in saving the plant food, we can feed 

 our dairies and our soil with the same dollar. We can also 

 save large phosphate bills by not allowing any plant food to go 

 to waste about our buildings. We may also call to our aid a 

 little plant that is not only rich in protein but has the power of 

 storing a large amount of nitrogen in the soil, that most valua- 

 ble of all Vermont crops, selected by the women of our State at 

 the Legislature of 1894 to be the State flower — the clover. 



We can no longer keep unprofitable cows for the pleasure 

 of their company. It is by studying and working along these 

 lines that we must expect to meet competition, ever re- 

 membering that westerners too are constantly progressing. 

 We believe there is reward for the dairyman in Vermont, 

 if he is painstaking, hopeful and thoughtful. His success 

 depends almost wholly upon the intelligence with which he 

 directs his labors. 



OLEOMARGARINE. 



Another serious problem for us to consider is the fraudu- 

 lent butter made in Chicago and other western cities. Decisions 

 have been made by the United States supreme court, in the past 



