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14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



much that will be interesting and instructive. With the aid of 

 you practical farmers to supplement their addresses with your ex- 

 perience and observation, we hope that we shall have not only a 

 pleasant but a profitable meeting. 



No class of men have so large a field of observation as farmers 

 in studying the wonderful processes of nature in both the animal 

 and vegetable world, and although the farmer may have to labor 

 hard to obtain his living, yet, if he will, he may have this labor 

 lightened by the study of growth and development in nature all 

 around him, and by this study make his daily work a pleasure. 



That a great advance has been made in the improved quality of 

 the stock kept on the farms of Connecticut, and in the modes of 

 cultivating the soil in the last thirty years, no one who has trav- 

 eled about the State can have failed to see. In nearly every pas- 

 ture and farm-yard now, will be found nice full-blood or grade 

 animals from some one or more of the noted families of Short- 

 horns, Devons, Jerseys, Herefords, Guernseys, Ayrshires, Swiss 

 or Holsteins, which are each, in their particular qualities, doing 

 so much to develop a superior race of cattle to take the place of 

 the inferior stock of Connecticut thirty or forty years ago. And 

 with all these different families of animals to choose from, any 

 farmer, whether a large or small one, can select such as his needs 

 require, and such as will be profitable for him to raise and use. 

 The rule that "the best goods are the cheapest" is nowhere truer 

 than in the quality of stock a farmer keeps. My observation 

 teaches me that the successful and thorough farmer is the one who 

 has the best animals, seeds, and implements on his farm. 



There are many causes for the great improvements in these last 

 years; among them are farmers' institutes and cattle shows. These 

 have brought farmers together so they could see what others were 

 doing, and given them an opportunity to select breeding animals 

 muoh better than they could otherwise have done. I think the 

 farmers do not appreciate as they should the advantage that has 

 come to many of the towns in the State through the sons of Con- 

 necticut, who, having gone out from the farm to some city or 

 manufacturing center, after years of trade, or manufacturing, 

 come back and use their wealth to fix up the old home and farm, 

 and introduce new animals as well as new ideas of farming, thus 

 making bright spots of the old homesteads all over the State. In- 

 stead of exciting the jealousy of the community (as sometimes 

 occurs) these efforts should be welcomed. And the animals which 



