8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



which they could pursue agriculture profitably aud well. The 

 agricultural societies of the State, thus fouuded, spread every- 

 where, not only in New England, but in New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania and other States. They became the allies of similar 

 institutions abroad, — of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, whose business it was, in its early days, to intro- 

 duce the great scientists of that time into the business 

 of developing agricultural information, and of ameliorating 

 ao-ricultural labor. It was a custom which at last was fol- 

 lowed everywhere ; and as the Board of Agriculture abroad 

 brought out Sir Humphry Davy, and introduced him, with 

 his scientific investigations, into the practical business of 

 cultivatinof the soil of England, and introduced other scien- 

 tists for the purpose of developing the great crops there, and 

 ascertaining the best modes of breeding and feeding cattle, 

 so exactly have the agricultural societies of this country 

 grown and developed at last into organizations like this, 

 representing not only the toil upon the land, but the honest 

 and earnest endeavors of the farmers at their own firesides to 

 study the laws by which they can be best guided in their 

 business. The Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts to-day 

 presents the attitude which I have stated to you, — that of 

 endeavoring in every way to rouse the agricultural mind of 

 the Commonwealth and guide the farmer in his calling. It 

 is, therefore, the Farmer's College, in which all men are pro- 

 fessors and teachers, and all men are learners. 



Now, it becomes m}^ duty to welcome an association like 

 this, on this occasion, to Essex County, which has done much 

 for the development of agriculture in time past, and which, 

 to a certain extent, has set the law of farming, which I con- 

 sider will ultimately be the general law established and 

 accepted throughout this entire country. The town in which 

 we are assembled has long been distinguished for the care 

 and system with which the land has been cultivated and the 

 business of manufacturing has been conducted. Settled, as 

 it was, two hundred and thirty-five years ago, in precisely 

 the same manner in which so many New England towns were 

 settled, by an honest, faithful, and earnest clergyman leading 

 his little flock into the wilderness for the purpose of enjoying 

 what our fathers demanded and insisted on here, " freedom to 



