76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of listeners. This exhibition of these fruits of the field does 

 credit, certainly, to those who have presented them. I do 

 not know but I ought to say that I am a little sorry to see 

 the "machine," which is so much objected to in politics, in- 

 troduced among the farmers ; and, having put my hand to it, 

 I do not know but I shall be accused of having lent my 

 influence in that direction. 



With you, I have enjoyed the essay of the morning. 

 With you, I have enjoyed the opportunity of seeing a farming 

 town ; and the best evidence of its thrift is in this, one of 

 its public buildings, — a hall which does infinite credit to 

 the taste and the enterprise of the citizens of Southborough ; 

 and wc find evidence of the same thrift and enterprise in 

 the beautiful homes and farms which we see about us, and 

 which we should see to better advantage if they were not so 

 thoroughly covered with the snow which has just fallen. 



It is not for me to indulge in mere commonplaces, or to 

 attempt to make suggestions to men who are so much more 

 familiar with the subjects which are before this meeting than 

 I am. There is one general suggestion which I draw from 

 the essay of the morning, and from the opportunity which I 

 have had, under the education of that essay, to examine the 

 farm of Mr. Burnett, and the machinery which he has in 

 operation there for the killing, curing, and selling of pork, 

 for the separation of cream from milk, and for the manufac- 

 ture of butter ; and that general suggestion is this : that it is 

 not of so much consequence that that particular machine 

 should succeed, but it is of the utmost consequence to see 

 that Mr. Burnett, a farmer, is putting intelligence and brain 

 into the business of farming, and to see, also, the farmers 

 of this Commonwealth coming up from all its sections, 

 interested in the experiment as an experiment, — the appli- 

 cation of brains and intelligence to farming ; for certainly, 

 if agriculture is taking any new start in Massachusetts, if it 

 has any future before it, it is because, through the influence 

 of leading men such as are gathered here, through the 

 education coming from the Agricultural College, through 

 the influence that is being stimulated by our agricultural 

 farmers' clubs, through the new impetus, I am happy to say, 

 which the new secretary of the Board is going to give to 

 this matter, farming is going to have applied to it something 



