66 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE). 



those came in timidly as if treading on forbidden ground. "We 

 have depended mostly," said the gentleman referred to, "upon 

 our stock and very little grain has been sent from the county." 



But as 'he said then, so say I now, "What we want in this 

 matter is information ; the experience of those who have been 

 engaged largely in the business." That, Mr. President, is what 

 we are assembled here for on this occasion, and I am delighted 

 to welcome you to the pleasant duty before you, for no greater 

 pleasure is given to man than that of teaching others by word 

 and precept the way to better things. "People seldom improve 

 when they have no other model but themselves to copy after," 

 for "example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at 

 no other." 



Some of you are in Farmington for the first time, and it is 

 always well to know under such circumstances something of the 

 place and the character of the people. A little over a hundred 

 years ago the first settlers came into the Sandy River valley. 

 From the hills they chose the wooded land whereon they made 

 their homes. The river wound its way through the valley then 

 as now, and from the easterly bank their lots extended back 

 for a mile, thus reaching up into the high land. It is about 

 three miles below our village where the first settlers made their 

 homes. They chose wisely and well, as you will see, for within 

 my recollection a young man bought a $10,000 farm in this 

 valley, and the mortgage was bigger than the farm, but before 

 he parted with that farm the cows had wiped out the mortgage, 

 and now another young man is doing the same thing. This is 

 just what the well-managed dairy in Franklin count v has done 

 for many others. It has always been a paying business here. 



Sweet corn is regarded as a desirable crop by many of our 

 farmers, and the past year one of these nearby valley farms gave 

 cash returns at the rate of $75 per acre. This particular farm 

 is operated by a man of foreign birth, attracted to the locality 

 by the real estate boomers, and he brought with him all the 

 necessary machinery, and the corn crop to which reference is 

 here made was probably grown with less hand labor than any 

 piece in Franklin county. May we have more such farmers to 

 help us solve the vexed "hired man" question. 



