men and dealers in dairy goods, from all 
parts of the State, who are members of the 
Association, are free to come and do busi¬ 
ness. 
This is a brief history of the organization 
which meets hero to-day, and we are glad to 
meet the dairymen of Western New York 
on their own ground, and take counsel con¬ 
cerning matters in which we are all mutually 
interested. 
THE PAST YEAR'S OPERATIONS. 
The year just passing away cannot be said 
to have been a very prosperous one to most 
dairymen. The average price of dairy pro¬ 
ducts for the year has not been largo enough 
to leave much margin, even had the season 
been an ordinarily good one. But in addi¬ 
tion drouth prevailed over a broad extent of 
country in the State during May and June, 
thus not only affecting pasturage ; but put¬ 
ting the hay crops considerably below* an 
average of former years. 
Again, the fall feed was scanty, and the 
cold weather and the snow came on so early 
in the season that it necessitated the feeding 
of stock from the barn sooner than usual, 
thus lessening the fall yield of milk very 
considerably. In many instances the cheese 
product this year will fall below that of 
1873 fully one-quarter. On fome of the 
best grazing districts of Herkimer, factory- 
men tell me, the aggregate product* made at 
the factory will fall off this year from that 
of lust by 40,000 to 00,000 pounds of cheese, 
on an average, for 700 to 800 cows. 
THE HAY CROP. 
The hay crops of the State, it is estimated, 
will fall below an average at least one- third. 
The Department of Agriculture puts the 
deficiency at about 20 per cent.; but ho far 
as I have been able to judge, it is 1 ally 80 per 
eent. Tiny is extremely high in many of the 
dairying counties of the State. Hi Herkimer 
it has sold loose, at the barn for $25 per ton, 
and many are of the opinion that higher 
rates will be reached before spring. This 
makes it extremely burdensome to carry 
stock when much fodder is to be purchased, 
as a cow, during the winter, will consume 
food amounting to uamtteh value as her pro¬ 
duct has been worth during the past year, 
Tn many instances corn has boon bought 
in large quantities to be fed in comioeUon 
with nay, and some are trying the experi¬ 
ment. of substituting corn meal for half the 
hay usually required to whiter stock. 
LOW PRICE OF STOCK. 
Another prominent feature of the year is 
the low price of live atock which had to be 
turned off in the fall, Good, straight, young 
milcli cows, every way suitable to winter 
over, or to till up the herds, have been sold 
in llerklmer and the adjoining counties In 
November, at, si.* per head, while such ani¬ 
mals as it was desired to weed out and not 
carry over another year, have gold for $5 to 
$8 per head, and, if thin in tlesh, for lower 
figures. Many of these animals coat last 
spring from $50 t.o $00 per head, and the 
imperative necessity for turning o(T stock at 
these low prices must, when taken with the 
other disadvantages named, leave a margin 
of profit very small, if indeed considerable 
losses do not result from the year’s opera¬ 
tions. 
LOSSES RESULTIH0 FROM THE PANIC-THE LESSON TO 
FARMERS. 
And yet, after all, the dairy farmer who 
has attended strictly to his calling, may be 
said to have been engaged in a comparative¬ 
ly prosperous business, when compared with 
those who hi ve invested their means in 
fancy stocks, in bankrupt railroads, in reck¬ 
less banking institutions, with defaulting 
officers, and in over-extended manufacturing 
interests. The losses occasioned by the 
financial panic in New York and other cities 
have been fearfully largo, and many persons 
a few months ago accounted wealthy ure 
now stripped of their possessions, and must 
begin life anew. 
The disasters of the last few months are 
not without their lesson to farmers. We can 
now see how much more perilous are those 
occupations in winch rapid and large ac¬ 
cumulations are supposed to obtain, as com¬ 
pared with agriculture, which yields its 
gains slowly but, at the same tune, more 
surely promises a competence in the end. 
It is well for farmers sometimes to consider 
these matters, and contrast their occupation 
in Its more quiet, and peaceful aspect as com¬ 
pared with the exciting and stormy life of 
those engaged in trade and the perilous pur¬ 
suits we have named ; for of late years there 
has been a tendency among farmers to be 
restless and dissatisfied with their slow ac¬ 
cumulations, and they have not unfrequent- 
ly shifted from one branch of farming to 
another, or have invested their hal'd-earned 
money in speculative projects, or fancy rail; 
road bonds, promising to pay high rates of 
interest, anu now find the working capital 
of their farm dissipated. 
THE FUTURE FOR DAIRY GOODS. 
In regard to the future for daily goods, I 
cannot see any very favorable prospect of 
prices advancing much above the average 
that has been obtained during the past year. 
There is no doubt but our goods are worth 
more than we get for them, but there is n» 
concert Of action among dairymen ; and so 
long as we send our goods abroad, prices 
NEW YORK STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSO¬ 
CIATION. 
THIRD ANNUAL MEETING, 
SinccaiuviiXE, N. Y., Doc. 10,1873. 
There is a large number of dairymen und 
others in attendance at the convention here 
to-day, representatives being present from 
different parts of the State, from Pennsyl¬ 
vania and from Canada. The meeting was 
organized at 11 o’clock A. M., the President 
of the Association, Mr. X. A. "Willard of 
Herkimer Co., in the chair. 
The morning session was occupied in the 
transaction of business, tho appointment of 
committees, etc., when a recess was taken 
until S P. M. 
On the assembling of the Convention in 
the afternoon, first in order was the opening 
address from the President. The following 
is a brief abstract of 
MR. WILLARD S ADDRESS : 
We meet here to day in accordance with 
the constitution of the New York State 
Dairymen's Association, which provides that 
the Annual Convention of the society shall 
be held in such place us our executive com¬ 
mittee shall designate. 
It has been customary to hold our Conven¬ 
tions in the central part of tho State. This 
has been objected to by many who contend 
that the interests of dairymen will be better 
subserved by carrying the annual meetings 
into different sections in turn. 
The Executive Committee entertained the 
same opinion, and in locating the Convention 
the claims of Chatauqua Co. appeared to be 
of more prominence than any of the other 
counties, and hence Sinelairville was se¬ 
lected as the place for the Convention. 
It is perhaps unnecessary for me to say 
that the Society does not come here to obtain 
pecuniary aid, or to save a fund from the 
receipts taken from persons in attendance. 
All that the committee Ask is that the ex¬ 
penses *f tlie Convention be paid by the Cott- 
vent-ion, so Unit the Association be not en¬ 
cumbered with debt on account of the 
meeting. 
HISTORY OF DAIRY ASSOCIATIONS. 
On Jan. 0th and 7th, 1804, a large number 
of dairymen and cheese manufacturers met 
at Rome, N. Y., for tho discussion of topics 
relating to the daily. This was the first 
public meeting of dairymen held in this 
country, and one of the results of that meet¬ 
ing was the organization of the “ New-York 
State Dairymen’s Association.” In Jan¬ 
uary, 1805, a second convention of Dairy¬ 
men was held at Utica, when the attendance 
was so groat as to fill the largest hall to be 
had in the city. The meeting of the follow¬ 
ing year, January, 1668, was also held at 
Utica, when there was an immense attend¬ 
ance, representatives being present from 
nearly all the Eastern, Middle and Western 
States, and from various parts of the Can¬ 
adas. The Association had assumed such 
magnitude, and had so many representa¬ 
tives from different States, that it was 
thought desirable to make the society na¬ 
tional in its character, and the “ American 
Dairymen's Association” was inaugurated 
by those present, and thus the State organi¬ 
zation was abandoned altogether. 
About this time similar associations began 
to spring up iu different States. These have 
spread, so that at present we have State 
organizations in Massachusetts, Vermont, 
Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minne¬ 
sota, and in Canada, besides numerous town 
and county Dairymen's Associations scat¬ 
tered over this and other States. New York 
was without a State Association from 1808 
to 1871. But early in January of that year, 
steps were taken to reorganize the Society, 
and place it upon an enduring basis. A call 
was made to the dairymen of the Stale to 
meet in February at Little Falls, for the 
purpose of organizing a State Dairymen's 
Association, which should embrace in it ob¬ 
jects a wider held than that occupied Ly 
the old society—namely, a Dairymen’s Board 
of Trade for the State. The call was re 
sponded to in February by a large attend¬ 
ance, and Judge Hakpix was called to the 
chair. The result of this meeting was, that 
a society under the name of the “ New York 
State Dairymen’s Association and Board of 
Trade” was organized. This was the first 
successful effort in establishing a Dairymen's 
Board of Trade in the United States. 
The citizens of Little Falls, with com¬ 
mendable liberality, subscribed and paid over 
to the Association a large sum to be ex 
pended in the erection and furnishing of a 
Trade Room at Little Falls, where daii-y- 
v ycro.i . a .ueu, U/ga-jJip l io iuyy u»jr to 
going on among dairy fanner's, as with those 
of other occupations, and many are going 
out of the business, so that there need be 
no immediate fear that dairy goods iu e to 
remain ft drug on uur hands. 
EXPORTS. 
The exports of American chouse during 
the past season, from Jan. I to Dec. 1, 1878, 
have been 1,510,456 boxes. If we put the 
average of boxes at 55 pounds each, our ex¬ 
ports during the eleven months amount 
to 88,075,060 pounds. This will doubtless 
be increased during tho present month to 
85,000,000 pounds, and perhaps more, In 
1850 our exports wore not quite 10,000,000 
pounds, and so late us 1807 only 58,000,000 
pounds. Bo it will be seen how enormously 
they have increased. There is very little 
first class butter exported from the United 
States, the prices in our home markets being 
generally more than could be obtained by 
exportation. Dorset butter has been quoted 
all summer in the Loudon market at 150s. 
sterling the cwt. This b. about 03c., gold, 
per pound. Canadian butter is quite lively 
exported, and brings in London from 100s. 
to 134s. sterling per ewt,, or about 25c. to 
27c., gold, per pound; but most, of the Cana¬ 
dian butter sent abroad is of inferior quality. 
What is very much needed in tho foreign 
trade is a good shipping package that will 
keep butter in good order during the voyage 
acroai tho Atlantic ; since at certain seasons, 
when our markets are dull, it might perhaps 
pay to dispose of goods abroad, if the high 
London prices could he reached. 
THE DAIRY EXTENDING. 
Dairying is now being extended in the 
East and in the West. In Maine about 
twenty cheese factories have boon erected 
during the past year. Tho State is well 
adapted to this specialty, and the Maine 
farmers appear to be well satisfied that it 
pays better than other branches of farming. 
During tho past summer I mode an exten¬ 
sive tour through the South and far West, 
and 1 found broad tracts of land in Virginia, 
Missouri, Kansas, Iowa. Colorado and Utah, 
where dairying could lie successfully intro¬ 
duced. 
THE SITUATION. 
What then, you will ask, is the situation 
for Now York dairymen, ami what course is 
to be advised in the future t In the first 
place the wages of farm laborers arc too 
nigh, and altogether out of proportion to the 
price received t'm- dairy goods. 1 believe in 
the principle of paying liberally for labor; 
but wages should always hear a proper ratio 
to the real value of the work performed. 
The successful manufacturer calculates close¬ 
ly the cost of the article manufactured, and 
if it has a fixed price in the market the coat 
must be below that price, or the manufac¬ 
turer will soon go to the wall. 
The old rule among dairymen was, that 
the wages of the best hands for six to eight, 
months, say from March to October, should 
be at the rate of a dollar and a half per 
month for each cent per pound received for 
cheese. That is to say, when the average 
price of cheese wag six cents per pound, 
farm hands could be had at $!) per mouth 
and board for the time named; when cheese 
was eight ccnts per pound, labor was $13 per 
mouth and board. Now, if we assume Lliat 
13c. be the average price Of cheese, then uur 
best hands should be obtained at $18 per 
month. Whenever a dairyman is paying 
more than this rale indicates he rimy bo cer¬ 
tain that all above cannot bn afforded and 
must come from some other source than that 
warranted in bi.-> business. It may be said 
that the price of labor can only be regulated 
by supply and demand, ami this in in a 
measure true ; but it is also true that many 
farmers do not know wlmt wages their busi¬ 
ness will warrant, and hence they pay all 
kinds of prices according to <• Ten instance, 
regulate price by that fixed upon by some 
or regulate price by that fixed upon by some 
neighbor. 1 have thus known one man fix a 
high price of labor fur a whole neighbor¬ 
hood. There should bo some ounce rt of ac¬ 
tion among fanners, by which a fair, honest 
