1907.] INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 33 



stantial food. I would just like to drop that hint, and we hope 

 that tlie State Board of Agriculture will recognize it and treat 

 it accordingly the next year. 



Du-ring this last year we received from the State Board 

 of Agriculture a grant of two hundred dollars. With that 

 money we intended to hold some poultry institutes, and our 

 executive committee had some fine ideas of what could be done, 

 and we had an idea that every person wanted to know some- 

 thing about poultry. So we volunteered our services, but when 

 we came to look the matter up we found not one single poultry 

 association or individual that would invite us to come and give 

 them a poultry day. The}^ were very glad to have us come 

 and give a poultry talk, but 'most always suggested that we 

 bring along the horticultural man, or the dairyman, to help 

 draw the crowd. They seemed to have the idea that we could 

 not get a crowd if the people were asked to come simply to 

 listen to a good chicken talk. Furthermore, a good many of 

 the chicken men did not seem to feel that they would derive 

 very much benefit from hearing local speakers, or that they 

 could afford to pay fifty, seventy-five cents or a dollar to attend 

 such a meeting. In fact, some of them seemed to feel that they 

 could not afford to leave their hens for one day for the sake of 

 getting a little information. So you see that we have some dis- 

 couragements in our work. At last, however, we did arrange 

 for one meeting at Vernon, and one at the college, where we 

 have had two poultry meetings. We also had a field day meet- 

 ing at Middletown. In order, however, to get the people whom 

 we wanted, to get the people who felt that they knew something 

 about the poultry business, and who perhaps have felt that 

 they could get all the information that they wanted from 

 poultry journals, we have sought to provide the very best 

 speakers we could find, the very best men available. We paid 

 what some of our critics have called unreasonable figures, and 

 have used what some of them have said was an unreasonable 

 amount of money for those meetings, but it was absolutely 

 Agr. — 3 



