FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII. 563 



ever seen. There are one huudred sixty-nine tubs of butter entered. This 

 number is larger than ever before since I have been your secretary, the qual- 

 ity is very fine and I am sure that when you hear the criticism by the 

 critic that you will not be disappointed. I want to congratulate the 

 buttermakers of the state upon their rapid advancement in improving 

 the quality of butter. There have been held since the last meeting of 

 the members of the association, two meetings of the executive com- 

 mittee. The first was held at Ames during the short course last 

 winter. The meeting was held on January 10th, for the purpose of 

 installing the newly elected officers of the association. Other business 

 which was taken up at that time was the arrangement to assist Mr. 

 E. S. Estel, state dairy expert, by giving him authority to hire such 

 assistance as was neccessary to conduct a special dairy train during 

 the winter. 



The other meeting was held at Ames on June 10th, and the busi- 

 ness transacted at this meeting was to select a place for holding our 

 1913 convention. After reading several propositions and invitations 

 from different places it was unanimously agreed to meet with the 

 Dairy Cattle Congress at Waterloo during the week of October 13-lb, 

 1913, as your committee believed the offer from Waterloo was by 

 far the more desirable. I'm sure that after seeing the attractions which 

 there are here and the accommodations provided that you will agree 

 that we made a wise selection. 



With reference to the work of the state dairy expert will say that 

 the work has been carried along very satisfactorily to the State Dairy 

 Board, there have been two very successful trains run over the Minne- 

 apolis and St. Louis railroad and one over the Chicago and North 

 Western R. R. The total number of farmers and dairymen who have 

 visited these trains is about forty thousand. Besides the special trains 

 the expert and his assistants have been asked to speak at fifty-six 

 farmers' institutes and a great many creamery and dairy picnics. 

 Altogether, we think that this feature of the work of the association 

 is very satisfactory and in our opinion there is more real good being 

 accomplished through the appropriation to this cause than any like 

 appropriation in the state. In connection with this thought I would 

 urge every one interested to assist in every way possible to have this 

 appropriation increased at the next session of our legislature. 



Just a word with reference to the creamery beautiful contest which 

 was originated by Professor Mortensen and which is being conducted 

 by this association. This being the first year of this work we did not 

 expect any great results but we are surely very well pleased with the 

 interest which is being taken in this work. There are at this conven- 

 tion ten entries from that number of creameries who are competing 

 for the prizes offered and I can assure you that in every instance there 

 is a wonderfully improved condition about the various creameries 

 brought about through these contests. It is the object of the associa- 

 tion to continue these contests from year to year until this spirit of 

 beautifying the creamery grounds both inside and out becomes uni- 

 versally adopted. 



