FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V. 215 



ley creamery. I want to urge the butter-makers to take this matter 

 up next year, and if I could have my way I would have every creamery 

 in the State of Iowa give a picnic. 



Our association, as an association, has become so large and un- 

 wieldy that without the assistance of State aid, which we have tried 

 so hard to get, we have been obliged every year to put our convention 

 on the block and auction it off. We have had to sell it to the city that 

 could give us the most money, the city that could accommodate the 

 great crowds we have, regardless of the dairy interests of the State, 

 and as these cities are large there is usually no dairying really very near 

 Ihem, and it makes it almost impossible for the farmers to attend our 

 State association meetings. We have been confronted with the fact 

 for a long time that our grand Iowa State Dairy Association, so far 

 as educating the farmers is concerned, amounts to almost nothing. 



While I do not wish in any way to entail hardships upon my suc- 

 cessor, I do want to recommend this: it is within the province of the 

 Iowa Dairy Association, in addition to holding this one grand, great 

 meeting — the grandest and greatest meeting of all State dairy associa- 

 tions — to hold in addition to this two or three ordinary meetings. I 

 am going to recommend that these meetings be held; I am going so far 

 as to recommend more work and probably more hardships for the Iowa 

 State Dairy Association than probably has ever been attached to it. 

 1 believe we can go to some community, to some smaller place, and 

 hold auxiliary meetings, that we can manage them upon the same basis 

 that we are today managing the Iowa Dairy Association; we can se- 

 cure members and we can secure subscriptions from them, which will 

 allow us to pay for outside speakers. The officers of the association 

 can donate their time and I believe that is what we must come to before 

 this association is going to amount to anything from the standpoint of 

 the farmers of the State. 



Now I want to talk to the butter-makers a little while. In the first 

 place, I want to thank you. I wish every butter-maker who has a tub 

 of butter over there in that hall were here tonight. I am proud to tell 

 you that we have one of the finest displays, with one exception (in 

 Dubuque), one of the best displays of butter that Iowa has ever had. 

 You will feel just as good over this as I do. We have one hundred 

 thirty-seven tubs on exhibition. In Dubuque we exceeded that num- 

 ber, but, as you know, we tried to take the place of the national con- 

 vention at .that time and threw the bars down and let everybody in. 

 As I said before, I want to thank the butter-makers. This exhibit means 

 this, it means they have an interest in dairying, in butter-making, in 

 improving their methods, and again I want to thank you for the Iowa 

 State Dairy Association and for the officers of this association. We 

 worked hard to get you to come; you responded nobly. You showed 

 your desire and your attention to improve your methods, and I want to 

 take this occasion to thank you for it publicly. 



It has been only a few years indeed since Iowa had not to exceed 

 three butter-makers in the State upon whom we could depend every 

 year to go to a national convention and come back with a creditable 



