32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



to prune, the shrubs and plants which are in my care. 

 Fourthly, how to carry on the contest with weeds. And, 

 fifthly, how to carry on the contest with innumerable insect 

 pests. It seems to me that, on my two and a half acres, I am 

 called upon to solve about all the problems which concern 

 you, judging from what I have heard iiere and what I have 

 read in regard to agricultural matters. And I must say, that 

 the very attempt at a practical solution of these great ques- 

 tions have given me a growing and a real interest in horticul- 

 ture, in agriculture, and in this whole class of questions 

 which interest the agricultural world to-day ; and I suppose 

 that no man who has not been through some such experience, 

 could sit here to-day and listen with anything like the inter- 

 est with which a man listens who has touched upon this great 

 subject on the edges, as I have done during the past eight or 

 ten years. 



But, my friends, it seems to me that, apart from any spe- 

 cial interest of this kind in agriculture, horticulture, and the 

 like, the citizens of Waterbury ought to be glad to have an 

 Agricultural Convention meet in the midst of them. As you 

 know, we are one of the most enterprising and prosperous of 

 the little cities of New England. We are extremely busy, 

 and that is, perhaps, the reason why there are not more of 

 our citizens here this morning. We go by machinery here ; 

 every man has to listen to a gong, and has to arrange his life- 

 work with reference to that engine, doing its work day after 

 day and year after year, which you will appreciate in your 

 homes. We send to you clocks, we send to you pins, and we 

 send to you watches, and we are going to send more and more 

 of them. They are things of utility rather than ornament 

 which are made in Waterbury and in such cities, and which 

 are sent out into the rural districts of Connecticut, of New Eng- 

 land at large, of the Great West, and into lands beyond the 

 sea. We are so busy, ray friends, that we are apt to think 

 that the whole world is a manufacturing world, and are apt to 

 lose sight of the foundation upon which you and I must alike 

 build. We are apt to forget that the producer is the man 



