CONSTITUTION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION, Adopted April 13, 1871, Amended January 18, 1882. SECTION 1. This organization shall be known as the Pennsylvania State Dairymen's Association. SECTION 2. Its purpose shall be to improve and develop the dairy resources of Pennsylvania. SECTION 3. Its membership shall consist of such persons as shall pay into the treasury the requisite fees, and of honorary members. The fee for permanent membership shall be one dollar, and for annual membership fifty cents. SECTION 4. Its officers shall consist of a President, Secretary, Treasurer, and twenty Vice Presidents. SECTION 5. The Executive Committee shall be composed of the president, secretary, treasurer, together with the first three vice presidents, and shall have the oversight of the affairs of the Association, the appointment of its meetings, and all arrangements for the same, including the annual meeting for the election of officers. SECTION 6. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep and prepare for publication the transactions of all meetings of the Association each current year, embracing such papers as shall be approved by him. The Treasurer shall keep the charge of the funds of the Association, and shall disburse the same on the order of the Secretary, countersigned by the President, and shall report receipts and disbursements at the annual meeting. SECTION 7. Amendments to this constitution may be made at any annual meeting, by a two-thirds vote of the members present. ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION, Held at Meadville, Pa., February 3 and 4, 1885. The eleventh annual meeting of the Pennsylvania State Dairymen's Association was held in the court-house, at Meadville, Pa., Tuesday and Wednesday, February 3 and 4, 1885. The first session opened at two o'clock, P. M., February 3, with several hundred dairymen and other farmers from various parts of the State in attendance. President A. M. Fuller, of Meadville, called the meeting to order and appointed committees, as follows: Finance.-H. W. Canfield, J. B. Phelps, D. H. Gibson. Bureau of Information.-H. Cooley Greene. Resolutions.-Willis P. Hazard, George Spitler, H. Cooley Greene. Auditors.-E. W. Shippen, John Cole. The Treasurer, J. H. Lenhart, being confined at home by sickness, Secretary H. Cooley Greene read the Treasurer's report, as follows: TREASURER'S REPORT. J. H. Lenhart, in account with Pennsylvania State Dairymen's Association, for the year ending February 3, 1885. By cash paid Frank Braymer, janitor, By cash paid A. M. Fuller, expenses as delegate to By cash paid Waterford Leader, printing, By cash paid L. S. Hart, printing special report, By cash paid Erie Observer, printing, By cash paid J. H. Lenhart, express and postage, $12 50 2.00 5 00 39 35 2.00 30 19 2.00 2.00 2.00 2. 00 2.00 2.00 2.00 200 3 75 525 73 $964 92 J. H. LENHART, Treasurer. On motion of E. W. Shippen, report received and placed on file. REPORT OF AUDITORS. To the President and Members of the Pennsylvania State Dairymen's Association: Your committee, appointed to audit the accounts of your Treasurer, respectfully report that they have examined said accounts and find them correct in every particular, with proper vouchers for all amounts reported paid out. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. Gentlemen of the Association : E. W. SHIPPEN, Auditors. I am here without a written report. As is known to you all, I am with you at the annual meeting, and little besides that. The business of the Secretary is chiefly done by the Assistant Secretary-who has his office in Meadville-the Treasurer and Assistant Secretary. I have no formal report to make. I will say that during the past year it seems to me that we have reason to feel gratified with the outlook. The outlook for the dairy interest has certainly not become more cloudy or dark during the past year. The time has been when the dairymen felt that they were being overwhelmed by different things; but those bug-bears have largely disappeared, and especially during the present depression, when there is heavy depression in every branch of manufacturing industry in our country, the dairy stands alone unaffected. We cannot say that there is a depression in the market value of dairy products. Cheese is bearing a good price; butter is bearing a good price (that is, good butter.) The prospects for the dairy are better than the prospects of the wheat-grower, and, as dairymen, we have reason to congratulate ourselves that we have chosen a branch of agriculture that is the last to come down to rock bottom, the last to feel a financial crisis, and the first to recover from it. Vice President Leon C. Magaw was called to the chair, relieving President Fuller, who delivered the annual address, as follows: ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, A. M. FULLer. MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION, GENTLEMEN: Several years have elapsed since I was called upon to deliver the opening address of the Association. These years have wrought great changes in the dairy industry in this State. North-western Pennsylvania, where associated dairying was first introduced into the State, and which gained for her so enviable a reputation for the production of fine cheese, is now called upon to divide the honor with eastern Pennsylvania. The creamery system adopted in the eastern part of the State has resulted in the building of many cheese factories, and though it has not added greatly to the reputation of Pennsylvania cheese, it has been rendered profitable by the production of fine butter. Dairying embraces the production of both cheese and butter, and as a dairymen's association, we extend to our eastern brethren congratulations over the progress they have made in the manufacture of dairy products. I take pleasure in stating to the Association that since our last annual meeting, held in this city, February, 1884, a very interesting spring meeting of the Association was held in Doylestown, Bucks county, May 22 and The meeting was well attended, the papers presented were exceptionally good, and the discussions of the subjects presented were not only interesting, but profitable to the members. I trust that the spring meeting of 1885 will also be held in the eastern part of the State. In reviewing the dairy business for the past year, I think it can be said that the business has been fully as profitable as any other branch of farming. I quote from Bradstreet's Journal of Trade, a most excellent authority, as follows: BUTTER. "The dairy interest is, at the present time, the most stable and prosperous department of agriculture. Its history is one of gradual and solid expansion, there having been no single year in which unprecedented progress has not been made. The lowest prices for the past seven years ruled during July, 1879, when they reached the lowest level since 1861. During the early months of the season, say from May until the end of September, butter sold below the cost of production. The low prices gave a great impetus to our export trade, which resulted in a marked advance in value during November and December, and continued to steadily advance year by year until 1883. The past year has been phenomenal for the low prices which ruled during the last two months, they being lower than for the corresponding period of 1879. This is a curious fact, and worthy of consideration, as last year the State act prohibiting the sale or manufacture of oleomargarine came into force. It was naturally expected that the passage of this act would increase the value of genuine butter. If this was the intention of its framers they have been much disappointed. Those interested in dairy products maintain that, under the present favorable circumstances, the country can produce more of the genuine article than it can consume. If, however, we had a short make, prices would become almost prohibitory. They account for the prevailing low prices by point ing out that the production this season has increased from fifteen to twenty per cent. In New York State alone, there has been an increase of ten to fifteen per cent., the open weather adding six weeks to the season's make. The depression in manufacturing centers has also had its effect upon prices; however, all things considered, it has been a profitable and fairly satisfactory year. The receipts, exports, and stock at new year compare as follows, with those of last year: The make of cheese in 1878 was exceptionally large, the consequence being that excessive stocks were carried over to 1879, when finest State factory sold at five and three quarter cents. This was the lowest price recorded for twenty years. The low prices prevailing at that time had the effect of introducing cheese into places hitherto unknown. The demand increased to such an extent that before the close of the year as high as thirteen cents was paid. The most remarkable feature in the cheese trade is the rapid development of the Canadian production. The exports from over the border have increased about twenty-five or thirty per cent. every year, until they now approach very nearly to that of this country, and if they continue, which in all probability will be the case, they must very soon exceed them. Canadian cheese is rapidly replacing American in foreign markets. The production of this State is, it is maintained, deteriorating, complaints having been made that certain factories, which stood high in the estimation of the trade, have this year abused their good name by "skimming." This cannot continue if we are to keep our foreign markets, for it is these that take our best makes. The present year's trade may have been fairly satisfactory to the producers, but receivers have had far from a good year. The receipts, exports, and stock of cheese compare as foliows with the previous year: In this section, I regret to say that the yield of dairy products is decreasing, and I would suggest that a discussion of the cause of the decline of dairying in the western counties of the State might be profitable to us. I believe that the main cause is the lack of stability on the part of dairymen, and the decline is due largely to the half-hearted way in which even our best farmers have followed the business. To render a business profitable, it must be equipped and furnished with every means necessary to its highest efficiency. Few business enterprises succeed which are conducted upon an experimental basis. |