204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



he who has the ring of the pure metal, of the genuine coinag'e. 

 You bring another important personage — the phonographic re- 

 porter — he who stands at the head of his profession in tliis coun- 

 tiy. To him will the world be indebted for your record when this 

 meeting has passed. From the character and the prestige of the 

 gentlemen here assembled, we expect an interesting and a profita- 

 ble meeting. 



The early day at which the meeting is held has given the 

 farmer-members of the Board less than their usual time for prepar- 

 ation ; but the scientific members — the professors of our scientific 

 schools are here, and are supposed to be always ready with their 

 parts. Then our State School of Agriculture and the Mechanic 

 Arts is here in its active faculty and its several classes of students 

 — an institution realized, for which we long hoped and prayed and 

 worked. 



It is not properly within my line to inquire or indicate what is 

 to be the order or the scope of the business to be taken up at this 

 meeting. It may be proper for me to say here in a public manner that 

 I understand circumstances prevented the issue of a definite pro- 

 gramme for the meeting. I think it not a matter of regret that it 

 is so. Our State is of such extent, and of so varied elevation, as to 

 present a considerable diversity in its climate as well as in the 

 soil ; and in the experience of the Board, we have sometimes 

 found, while discussing one crop or product, that different mem- 

 bers were talking about very different things. To illustrate, a 

 hickory planted in Maine grows to the same hardy beauty that it 

 is in Massachusetts or Michigan ; and it is proper for every land- 

 owner here to note the fact. But when Mr. Goodale is asked 

 here in ray garden to name a currant that came from his grounds 

 without a label, his practiced eye "gives it up" — and he says 

 things grow so differently here from tlicir habit at Saco as some- 

 times to defy identification. Some early variety of grape may 

 succeed here admirably, and fail utterly on the banks of the Saco 

 or the Hudson. So of many fruits, crops and products. You, 

 Mr. President, have talked in your forcible style of agriculture as 

 it is in the county of Hancock — of the crops — their successes and 

 their failures — all matters of great importance to your people, but 

 of less or very little practical value to us here, perhaps no more 

 than as historical facts from a foreign land. 



For many reasons, some of which I will try to present, I hope 

 this meeting may partake less of the general character than former 



