EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI 325 



THE FUTURE OF DAIRYING. 



By Hugh G. Van Pelt. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: I really became very envious of Mr. Law 

 when he started to talk to you and said he had only one speech; I thought 

 how fortunate I would be if, like him, I had one speech. I have been 

 very unfortunate in that respect. On one occasion I was going to make 

 a speech and I decided I would write it out and read it, so I took a great 

 deal of time to prepare it. Just before I got to the meeting I lost it. 

 The next time I wrote it out and committed it to memory and when I 

 got on my feet, I forgot it; so ever since that time I have been com- 

 pelled to say what was on my mind. 



I am here today without a speech. Like the preacher who went before 

 his congregation, "I have been so busy this week I have not had time 

 to prepare a sermon. I hardly know what I am going to say. I'll have 

 to depend on the Lord this time, but next Sunday I promise you I'll come 

 better prepared." So some time I hope to come before you better pre- 

 pared. 



I remember some years ago when the State Dairy Association held its 

 meeting on these grounds, we had a tent some five times as large as this 

 and the seats could not hold those in attendance. I really believe that 

 this convention -should mean more to the dairymen and buttermakers of 

 Iowa than it seemingly does. It seems to me that at this particular 

 time, in this particular period we are going through, this tent should be 

 full. I realize there is much going on in the grounds and I realize it is 

 difficult to listen to dry speeches when cattle are showing, etc. Never- 

 theless I believe that the program which has been prepared should be 

 sufficient so that at this time, as in past years, you should fill up this 

 tent and get the good out of the program. 



I believe that the State Dairy Association has performed a remarkable 

 mission for the Mississippi Valley and the United States. It was the 

 State Dairy Association that founded the Dairy Cattle Congress. In 

 1906, the first time I appeared before this meeting, there was a large 

 attendance but there were only two bona fide dairymen present as I 

 found when I analyzed the crowd afterward. IW. B. Barney was there 

 and, because he is not here today, I am sure the reason he was there 

 then was because he was president of the association. The only other 

 dairyman present was a breeder of Red Polled cattle from Central City, 

 Iowa. The rest of the audience was made up of buttermakers, railroad 

 men and commercial travelers, so that the State Dairy Association at 

 that tim<) had but two real cow men present. 



When I went back home I threatened to go back east where men 

 who milk cows attend meetings. Instead, however, I prevailed upon 

 the association officers to permit me to put on a cow demonstration the 

 following year. The Holstein-Friesian Association paid the expenses 

 of bringing some of Mr. Barney's cattle from Hampton and the Ameri- 

 can Jersey Cattle Club paid the expenses of a choice consignment of Jer- 

 seys from northwestern Missouri. 



