156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



HOW CAN NEW ENGLAND COMPETE WITH THE WEST 

 IN DAIRYING? 



BY PROF. J. L. HILLS, BURLINGTON, VT. 



May I not be forgiven, if, for a minute before we take up 

 the topic of the morning, I express my pleasure at this 

 opportunity of greeting the farmers of my native State. I 

 am doubly gratified that this meeting has occurred in the 

 town where my young ideas were first taught to shoot at the 

 target of agricultural knowledge and investigation. I am 

 glad, moreover, on this occasion publicly to acknowledge 

 the debt I owe to the Massachusetts Agricultural College for 

 the training and the nurture it gave me, to lay at the feet 

 of my alma mater the offering of what little good there may 

 have been in me and in my work in agricultural teaching 

 and research. And, finally, as dean of the agricultural de- 

 partment of the University of Vermont and State Agri- 

 cultural College, I am proud to bring its greetings and best 

 wishes to its sister institution. 



I have approached the consideration of the subject of 

 western competition in dairying with some diffidence, because 

 my life work has lain along lines which have not enabled me 

 to take a comprehensive view of subjects dealing intimately 

 with market conditions. To cover such a subject broadly, 

 one needs to occupy the several stand-points of producer, 

 commission man and consumer. I have read, studied, 

 thought, conversed, experimented more or less on the gen- 

 eral subject and on allied topics, in connection with college, 

 dairy school, farm institute and experiment station work, 

 but almost always from the stand-point of the producer. 

 If, then, my ideas are one-sided, if I lay too much stress on 

 production, if my errors of omission are only less glaring 

 than those of commission, I beg that my hearers will not 

 hesitate to supply the deficiencies in the discussion which I 



