30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



one for me to talk about. Speaking of friends, we all delight 

 in having a large circle of them, but we classify them. We 

 discriminate in regard to our friendships. We have our 

 business friends, that we meet in a business way, and after 

 the business transaction is done we separate and only meet 

 again when we have more business to transact ; then w^e have 

 our social friends, whom we meet for the purpose of passing 

 a pleasant hour in a social way, and when the social function 

 has been discharged we separate and only meet again upon 

 a similar occasion; and then we have the near and dear 

 friends, those that share our joys and mingle their tears with 

 purs, who stand heart to heart, shoulder to shoulder, and 

 hand to hand in the day of trouble ; these are our near and 

 dear friends. I have in my mind at this moment a gentleman, 

 one of the many friends of the good roads movement, and 

 this one in particular is a near and dear friend to me and 

 ought to be to every lover of the good roads movement. I 

 remember very well as a special mark of his friendship in 

 1897, when the whole of the State was shaken from founda- 

 tion to turret with opposition to the good roads movement, 

 at which time it seemed as if every man had his hands set 

 against this great movement, when, like the whistle of Rod- 

 erick Dhu, " wild as the scream of the curlew, from crag to 

 crag the signal flew," and when the opposition was fast and 

 furious, this friend I have named came to the rescue with 

 goodly advice and sweet counsel, drew to the support the 

 large circle of friends he had, and thus assisted signally in 

 wresting victory out of what seemed almost sure defeat, thus 

 contributing very materially to the re-establishment of this 

 movement upon a firmer foundation than it ever occupied 

 before. I remember again when, a few years later, a dis- 

 criminating public selected this gentleman from amongst the 

 honorable walks of citizenship and placed him in the highest 

 office within its gift, that no document that came before him 

 for his official signature was signed more cheerfully or 

 quickly than the one which bore upon its face the largest 

 appropriation ever enjoyed by the State since the beginning 

 of the movement. I have reference to your honorable Presi- 

 dent and our Governor, the Hon. George P. McLean. (Ap- 

 plause.) 



I am very glad to be at this session. It has not been my 



