1902.] DISCUSSION. 87 



his large commercial and manufacturing interests, devoted 

 time and labor and strength to making and giving an annual 

 address which was considered the most important thing in 

 the whole three days of the fair. That helped to build up 

 that fair. There is no doubt if we could secure the services 

 of so eminent a gentleman as Mr. Hale to attend the fairs of 

 Connecticut, he would not only elevate the tone of those fairs, 

 but make them the means of instruction, make them educa- 

 tional and profitable. 



Mr. Sedgwick. Mr. Chairman: I think it would be a 

 mistake to allow the erroneous impression to go out from 

 this meeting that our State Board of Agriculture has out- 

 lived its usefulness. Looking back, as I do, thirty years, to 

 the time when I first attended meetings of this Board, and 

 when there was probably not over fifteen or so at the first 

 day's meeting, and having attended most of the meetings 

 within the last thirty years, except perhaps five or six, and 

 noticing as I have the growth of agricultural sentiment in 

 this State, which this State Board has fostered, and the good 

 work which this Board has carried on, has resulted in very 

 great benefit to the State, and is doing much today and much 

 more than ever before. I say, therefore, it would be a great 

 mistake if the idea should go out from this meeting that the 

 Board as at present constituted was not fulfilling its useful- 

 ness or doing its duty. Now, sir, say what you will about 

 the best speaker practically filling the bill of fare of the Board, 

 and there not being opportunity for discussion, the fact of the 

 matter is that* a great deal of the good which comes from 

 these meetings comes from the association of the farmers 

 who are present, and the good that we get between the meet- 

 ings, as well as the good that we get when we hear the speak- 

 ers, is certainly something of very great value. By coming 

 together and meeting each other, mind strikes mind, and 

 much knowledge is given and imparted. The one who is 

 interested in horticulture finds here his brother farmer in 



