262 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



association and I judge from that that they are mighty glad to have you 

 come or they would not have put up the money to bring you here. The 

 absence of the mayor is unavoidable, I know, on his part, and the wel- 

 come the city will give you the next two or three days is not indicated by 

 his unavoidable absence this evening. 



RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



HON. BYEON NEWBERRY, STRAWBERRY POINT, IOWA. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I appreciate the honor of be- 

 ing called upon to respond to the generous welcome to the Iowa State 

 Dairy association, assembled here in its thirty-first annual convention. 



No city within the borders of our commonwealth is as well equipped 

 to entertain conventions, or so accessible to all the people as Des Moines. 

 The people of Iowa appreciate the fact that Des Moines is a goodly city to 

 sojourn in even for a brief period and are proud of its recognized posi- 

 tion in many ways as the metropolis of the state. We admire your 

 motto "Des Moines does things." We appreciate your kindly greetings 

 and we sincerely trust your city will continue to "do things" for the best 

 interests of its people and the welfare of the state, 



I wish to congratulate the good people of this city, that you have as- 

 sembled here, for the first time, I am told, the representatives of the 

 great dairy interests of the state, each one of whom knows when his 

 bread is butter side up, and who have always advocated the principle of 

 a "square deal," that whosoever in our broad land calls for butter to 

 ipread upon the right side of his bread, and has the price, is entitled to 

 expect pure, wholesome butter and not a substitute of unknown quality 

 of unwholesomeness. 



The members of this association, the dairyman, the creameryman, 

 the buttermaker, the traffic solicitor, the commission man, the farmer, 

 one and all are loyal subjects, while the people from the oldest inhabitants 

 to the youngest child are the dependent subjects of that great and gen- 

 erous sovereign, the old cow, the queen of the prairies. 



But few appreciate the extent and importance of the dairy interests 

 of Iowa. According to the auditor's report, there are 1,418,017 cows In 

 the state with an assessed valuation of $31,989,011. This valuation is 

 only about $22.50 each. The actual value of the cows Is now doubtless 

 $40,000,000. I am reminded by our excellent dairy commissioner that 

 for the year ending July 1st last, there were 101,011 creamery patrons. 

 The creameries received the cream from 700,000 cows. There were nearly 

 75,000 hand separators in operation, and the output of the creameries 

 the past year in round numbers is 90,000,000 pounds of butter, while the 

 estimated amount of butter made on the farms and outside the cream- 

 eries is 65,000,000 pounds, making a total of butter produced in the state 

 of 155,000,000,000 pounds. Any reason why our bread should not be 

 buttered — on one side, at least? 



We are surely living in a land overflowing with milk and butter. The 

 local value of the buter produced during the year at twenty-five cents 



