AGRICULTURAL INFLUENCES. IQ>J 



EVENING SESSION. 



The meeting was called to order at TJ o'clock, the President in 

 the Chair. The first paper read was an essay on 



"Our Influences from an Agricultural Standpoint." 



BY HON. WARREN PEHCIVAL. 



When the Board of Agriculture was first organized I had the 

 honor and pleasure of being a member during several years. I 

 felt a deep interest in its labors and discussions. Those associa- 

 tions had a salutary influence, inciting me to reduce to practice, 

 views and theories advanced by practical, intelligent agricultu- 

 rists. I have lost no interest during the intervening years ; and 

 now, when again I find myself a member, I am prompted to assist 

 in some way, but there has been such a change in its practical 

 workings that I hardly know my latitude, or what to do or say ; 

 but as every man exerts an influence for good or ill, even though 

 his knowledge is limited and his sphere of action humble, I pro- 

 pose to offer some remarks upon Our Influence. Very many 

 regard agricultural pursuits as humiliating in the extreme. I am 

 happy to know that a radical change is taking place in public 

 sentiment, and more happy to perceive that the intelligent, practi- 

 cal agriculturist ranks first in many of the business relations of 

 life Therefore I shall attempt to illustrate my ideas by two 

 extremes, principally from an agricaltural stand-point. 



Mr. A has fair natural ability, but from the force of early educa- 

 tion, is traditionary in agricultural operations. He inherited his 

 farm and fixtures from his father ; the homestead for generations. 

 The buildings are dilapidated; orchard (if he has any) is un- 

 pruned, ungrafted, dying and barren; fences decaying; stone- 

 walls prostrated ; bars broken ; gates ajar and unhung ; mowing 

 fields rough and barren, interspersed with large clusters of bushes 

 and thistles surrounding numerous rock-piles, infested by destruc- 

 tive vermin ; pastures exhausted, covered with moss, hard-hack 

 and sweet fern ; swamps unreclaimed, overrun with alders, wil- 

 lows, water-grass and brakes ; wood-lots neglected, trees up- 

 turned and decaying ; his garden producing an abundant crop of 

 weeds. Poultry house in the top of his trees or where he stores 

 his carriages ; the piggery is a yard on some northern slope to 

 secure a supply of fresh air. His tool-house is his entire farm ; 

 his farm implements are no modern humbugs, but have descended 



