306 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



progress in a marked degree to the efforts of your Board of Agri- 

 culture, and the Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts, both 

 standing shoulder to shoulder in the promotion of this great work. 

 And I feel to-day that there is more encouragement for young 

 men to educate and fit themselves for the special purpose of farm- 

 ing than ever before. We old men have groped along on uncer- 

 tainties, guessing most of the time, with little positive knowledge 

 appertaining to our occupation. But the young men who are 

 coming on the stage have great advantages, and 1 have no dotibt 

 that as time progresses farming will take as high a stand-point 

 among the industries of States and Nations as any other calling. 



Mr. President, 1 congratulate you upon the success of your 

 meetings, upon what you have done to promote agriculture. I 

 came here quite late, and have had an opportunity to listen only to 

 a few of your lectures; still, I shall carry home some things that 

 will be of great value. And one little thing just occurs to me. 

 Your lecturer told us to-night that when we want to do a good 

 thing, we must beat ourselves; and when I want to beat myself 

 in farming, I find 1 have to come to Connecticut to catch some new 

 ideas. I am bound to confess, in common honesty, that the high- 

 ■est result of horticulture I have ever seen, the best gardening, the 

 best products I- have ever seen, I have seen in the State of Con- 

 necticut, notwithstanding all our boasting in old Boston, and in 

 Massachusetts. I do not say this to flatter you, gentlemen of Con- 

 necticut, but I say it as a fact. 



And now I am going to refer to one or two things that I have 

 seen, and I think I can convince you in a very few words that I 

 am telling you the truth. I want to speak in relation to straw- 

 berry growing, which is quite an interest in some sections of this 

 State, and some of the most intelligent growers live in the State 

 of Connecticut. I visited a gentleman in this State and went into 

 his garden a year ago last September, and I saw a few rows of 

 strawberry plants that had been set out the first of August. The 

 diameter of those plants was equal to a peck measure, and they 

 had only had one month and twenty days to grow in. I was per- 

 fectly astonished. I asked the gentleman if he would give me 

 a report of the product of those plants this last season, and he 

 has sent me the report. He had six rows of strawberry plants, 

 with sixty plants to the row. Some of those plants have borne 

 the last season three pounds of strawberries; that is 180 pounds 



