EVENING SESSION.

The meeting was called to order at 7.45.

The CHAIRMAN. The Governor, by virtue of his office, is chairman of the State Board of Agriculture. He is with us to-night, and will address you and take charge of the meeting. I have the pleasure of introducing to you Governor Brackett, whom you all know.

ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR BRACKETT:

I

LADIES and GENTLEMEN:- One of the evidences of the importance, in the estimation of the Commonwealth, of the work of the Board of Agriculture, is found in the law which provides that the Governor of the State shall be a member of the Board. Whenever he is present at one of its meetings, it is his province, as has been stated, to preside. have come here this evening for that purpose rather than to deliver any formal address. It has seemed especially fitting that I should render this service at this time, as the lecture of the evening is to be delivered by the chief magistrate of a sister State. I am very glad to be here to meet him, to greet him, to pay him my respects, and to give him an official welcome to the Commonwealth. time he has visited Massachusetts. ment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Boston last summer he was there, and spoke, I know, greatly to the satisfaction and delight of those who had the good fortune to hear him. I know that you will all be glad to listen to him this evening. The subject of his address, coupled with the fact that he is the editor of a well-known agricultural periodical which is devoted especially to the dairy interests of the country, suggests to me the propriety of a brief allusion, during my few introductory remarks, to the dairy interests of Massachusetts.

This is not the first During the Encamp

The importance of this branch of our agricultural industries. is evidenced by the last census, from which it appears that the dairy products of Massachusetts were in value more than twenty-seven per cent of the entire agricultural products of the State. Their value was upwards of thirteen millions of dollars, and I presume that the census of the present year

will show a still larger amount. The importance of an industry of this magnitude certainly entitles it to the consideration and to the fostering care of the State. Whatever can be done for its encouragement, for increasing the sale of its products, for enlarging the receipts of those engaged in it, not only contributes to their prosperity, but adds to the wealth of the Commonwealth. It is entitled to every protection which the government can throw around it. Protection is the object, I am not now speaking in any partisan sense, protection is the object for which governments are instituted among men. They are to protect the citizen in his life, in his liberty, in the enjoyment of his civil and political rights, in his industry. By our tariff system we aim to protect the American producer, so that his market shall not be taken away from him by those engaged in similar industries in other countries, who, by reason of their cheaper labor and their different conditions, are enabled to make their goods more cheaply and to sell them at a less price. Upon a like principle it is just and expedient that the government should protect the American farmer, so that his market shall not be taken away from him by those making, not the same goods, but other goods in imitation of them, and which by their resemblance the purchaser is induced to buy because supposing them to be the genuine article instead of the imitation. I therefore believe that the claim of the farmers that parties engaged in manufacturing imitation butter should not be allowed to give to that article either the name or the semblance of butter, is just, and that it should be heeded and complied with by the government of the State. In order to encourage useful inventions, the government protects the inventor by prohibiting other persons from making articles in imitation of that upon which he holds a patent. This is done because it is considered to be good public policy so to do. Now, although butter is not a patented article, although no one has a monopoly of its manufacture, I believe that it is likewise in accordance with sound public policy to protect those engaged in its production, by providing that it shall not be counterfeited, that any article made to serve the same purpose shall have a different name and a distinct appearance, so that the purchaser shall be able

to know what he is buying, and be guarded against fraud and imposition. The word "butter" has a specific meaning. The article which bears that name has a definite and wellknown appearance, and has been made from time immemorial; and it is entirely fair and just to insist that any article made as a substitute for it shall be distinguished from it both in name and appearance, so that the consumer may know the one from the other, and make his choice accordingly. If the substitute is as good as that for which it is substituted, or attempted to be substituted, let it stand on its own merits, and not masquerade in the guise of something else. As the poet says that "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," so oleo by any other color than that of butter would taste as sweet, undoubtedly. Therefore let it appear in its natural hue, and not be dyed into the semblance of butter. Then, if, as its friends claim, it is as good and as healthful, and can be produced at less cost, so that the poor people can buy it and not be at so great expense as they would be in buying real butter, the people can purchase it if they wish to; but in doing so they will act understandingly, and be protected from a deception which is a wrong both to them and to the producer of the real article.

Now, my friends, for these very few among the many reasons which could be given, I believe that the demand for legislation upon this subject which has been made before the Legislature of Massachusetts for a number of years is sound in policy, that it is in the interest of honest dealing, that it is for the benefit of the consumer as well as the producer of butter, that it would enable the competition between the two commodities to be carried on upon a fair basis, and that therefore this legislation is entitled to the support of all good citizens; and I trust the demand will be kept up until it meets with success.

At the annual fairs of the New England Agricultural Society it is customary to set apart one day which is called "Governor's Day," upon which the Governor of Massachusetts and as many of the other governors of the New England States as can be induced to come are present. It was my misfortune last summer not to be here on that occasion, by reason of having made an engagement to attend a county

fair in another part of the Commonwealth, before I knew the days on which the fair here was to be held, which I greatly regretted. Of the evenings devoted to the public winter meeting of the Board of Agriculture, this may perhaps be called "Governor's Evening;" and as Governor of Massachusetts I take great pleasure in presenting to you the Governor of Wisconsin, who not only stands at the head of that great agricultural State of the West, but who is also a practical farmer, and therefore qualified by his experience as well as by his study to speak intelligently and interestingly upon any agricultural topic, His Excellency Governor Hoard.

THE DAIRY TEMPERAMENT OF COWS.

AN ILLUSTRATED LECTURE BY GOVERNOR W. D. HOARD OF WISCONSIN.

(Stenographic report by J. M. W. Yerrinton.)

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I am very much interested in appearing before you to-night, for the reason that, as the boy said, "I have the old taste in my mouth once more." I have been dealing with the political bullock for about a year, to the exclusion of my more gentle comrade the cow, and I have not fared as well as I used to, which no doubt is for the wise and beneficent purpose of teaching me not to forsake old friends for others. I have been quite interested in listening to what Governor Brackett has said to you upon the deeds of this "wicked and adulterous generation." Verily it is such a generation. "The greed of man stoppeth not short of hell," says Andrew Fuller, and he is right; and in his greed he would not only take himself there, but you and me with him.

The adulteration of foods has become a crying sin in this nation. Two years ago we established a dairy and food commission in Wisconsin, and appointed a commissioner, assistant commissioner and a chemist, whose business it was to proceed to throw some light upon the situation. Let mę give you an illustration showing how far this greed has gone. Thirty samples of cream of tartar, taken from the most reputable grocerymen, were analyzed, and twenty-four out of the thirty contained not a trace of cream of tartar. They were composed of gypsum and white clay, and the acid imparted by tartaric acid, nitric acid, and various other sub

stances. I find that everywhere in this universal land of freedom altogether too much liberty is taken with what men eat; and everybody is justifying it, winking at it, and saying, "Oh, well; let every man's eyes be his chief law; let every man's taste decide for himself." We have not thought how very important this question of the adulteration of butter is. Not only does it affect the purchaser, but the producer has a right to ask the government to protect his business against a competition based on a cheat. Competition fair and square he has no right to ask protection against ; but he has a right to be protected against competition based upon a cheat. Out of a thousand pounds of oleo nine hundred and ninety-nine pounds are consumed under the supposition, when it is eaten, that it is butter. The man who makes it knows what it is, the dealer who buys it knows what it is, the boarding-house or hotel keeper knows what it is; but the consumer supposes it to be butter. Men tell you that it is a healthful product. That it is not true; it is not a healthful product. It is almost entirely pure carbon. Its melting point is 1050, and the bodily heat cannot melt it. Natural butter melts at 98°. Artificial butter refuses to melt below 105°, and remains in the stomach, to the severe nervous exhaustion of the person. And yet they tell us it is healthful!

Now, the French food commission investigated this subject, the physicians of France studied it, and they found that wherever they fed this substitute for butter to the patients in their hospitals there was a serious depression of nervous energy that the patients began to decline. They traced it to the use of artificial butter, and they saw why it should be so. Now, if it is not good for a sick man, proportionally it is not good for a well man. Then, again, the present situation is such that you have no guarantee of the purity of that article, and the wildest fraud conceivable can have free course, run and be glorified" inside of an oleomargarine tub. There is no law to-day to guarantee its healthfulness. I was creditably informed, a few years since, that one hundred barrels of oil rendered from hogs that had died of hog cholera were traced from Iowa to oleo factories in Chicago. Mr. Sherman, dairy commissioner of Iowa, informed me that he understood the same to be fact. Be that as it may, we should

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