50 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE 

 BOARD OF TRADE AND CITIZENS OF DEXTER. 



By E. L. Palmer. Dexter. 



Members of the State Dairymen's Association; Ladies and 

 Gentlemen: 



It is my pleasant duty this evening to extend to the visiting 

 association, for the Board of Trade and citizens of Dexter, 

 the more formal words of welcome. I am not skilful in the 

 coining of happy phrases for such occasions, and I would hardly 

 dare undertake this were I not aware of the very cordial recep- 

 tion and welcome 'that will be extended to you by our citizens 

 wherever you meet them. You come to us actively working 

 for the common good, and because of your progressive spirit 

 we gladly welcome you to our town. You are a branch of that 

 greatest industry of our country, agriculture, and, fortunately, 

 that branch which during the past decade has shown the greatest 

 work for progress. Our country for a century has been too 

 busy to study very closely its surrounding conditions and to look 

 very carefully to the future. The great abundance of our 

 natural resources overwhelmed us for generations and forbade 

 us to see that those verj- resources, enormous as they were, 

 must sometime fail. You know that our forests have been 

 largely cut over and the timber sold ; that the natural fertility 

 of the soil has to a great extent been exhausted and many of 

 our farms abandoned ; and those public utilities of inestimable 

 value are now in the hands of a very few. Now that these 

 things have taken place, we are beginning to sit up and take 

 notice. Our fathers of the past generations were very prodigal 

 of the natural resources of the country, and today we are face 

 to face with that strange paradox that the very things that have 

 enriched us have at the same time impoverished us. But with 

 our awakening we are beginning to realize that we must work 

 and work intelligently, ^^'hile in the past our wit and our great 

 natural resources have made vast fortunes, in the future only 

 intelligent work and untiring industry will win a competency. 



