10 



come to this hall, to this city of ours, and to the homes and hearts of all well- 

 wishers of this great, though as yet infantile, dairy interest in this thriving 

 State of ours. We would say again, we most cordially welcome you here 

 amongst us, hoping and trusting as we do, that you may profit and we 

 improve by your sojourn with us during the deliberations of this Association. 



The age in which we are permitted to inhabit this terrestrial globe of ours 

 is replete with important events, and we are making rapid strides in progress 

 and improvement. If you wish evidence of this, turn your mind's eye back 

 fifty or one hundred years and compare the dairy interests then with now. 

 We need not confine ourselves to the dairy interests alone to note progress. 

 Look, if you please, at our railways, which almost annihilate time and dis- 

 tance as compared with former modes of travel. Take a glance at our tele- 

 graph system, which is able to transmit thought thousands of miles across 

 oceans ahead of time. Look, if you please, at our monitors, which put to 

 trembling the navies of the entire civilized world. And last, though not 

 by any means least, behold the great Centennial exposition, which closed 

 its session only a few days ago. Here were found the representatives, 

 together with their products, from all, or nearly all, civilized nations of the 

 globe. 



The coming together, the mingling and commingling and change of 

 thought with thought will, we hope and trust, serve to elevate the morals 

 of nations, and bring about a rightful mode of settling differences other 

 than by that barbarous custom of war, and thereby allow our monitors to 

 be made into plowshares, and the other implements of war into milk pails, 

 cheese- vats and cheese-presses. 



Less than half a century ago the red man was wont to roam over these 

 prairies with tomahawk and scalping-knife, bedewed with the crimson gore 

 of the newly slain victim who had chanced to struggle this way, attracted 

 or allured by a beautiful faced country, or by a salubrious climate with a 

 rich and fertile soil, to seek a western home, although deprived by so doing 

 of many of the necessary and social comforts of life. It was here, in the 

 valley of the great Father of Waters, that the western bound traveler sat 

 himself down on a soil of virgin purity, glowing with vegetation in all its 

 pristine beauty. Here it was that the young stalwart farmer, together with 

 the elderly gray-headed man, commenced opening up the soil; and although 

 scarce fifty years have elapsed, yet we are Javorably known for the amount 

 of cereals, pork, beef, butter and cheese we have raised or manufactured 

 and put upon the various markets of the world. 



Behold us then in our infancy with a large surplus product for sale in 

 foreign markets, and tell us, if you please, what will become of our products 

 when we grow to adult age V 



The question is frequently asked, of what use are these dairy conventions ? 

 In answer to that question allow me to say that in my judgment, to many 

 they are of but little use; but to the inquiring, thinking mind, they are of 

 much benefit. Subjects are here brought up of vast interest to the dairyman 

 and agriculturist, and widely discussed. 



The great moving power of the human machine is thought, and whatever 



