24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Until comparatively recently, no active measures have been 

 taken to commemorate the services of those who went from 

 our town during the late Rebellion, and sacrificed their lives 

 in the defence of their country. After most other towns 

 had erected suitable structures for this praiseworthy object, 

 instigated by zeal and earnest efforts of a very few who took 

 an active interest in this matter, we decided to follow the 

 example set in other places, and are now, through the liberal- 

 it}^ of friends, and especial appropriations by the town, con- 

 structing a substantial memorial hall and library building 

 combined. The structure is of brick and stone, of the Queen 

 Anne style of architecture, and is only a few rods from this 

 hall. 



But you may say that you have come here in the interest 

 of agriculture, and would like to have us keep that fact in 

 mind, and tell you something about the nature of the soil in 

 Plymouth County, the crops raised, and our system of hus- 

 bandry, — in a word, "what we know about farming." 



As you are probably well aware, agriculture is not the 

 leading industry in the Old Colony, the soil not being so rich 

 by nature as in most other parts of the State ; but, notwith- 

 standing this drawback, our comjiaratively sterile soil has 

 some redeeming qualities. It is for the most part level, and 

 but slightly encumbered with stones, large or small : thus it 

 is admirably adapted for the use of machines. 



If the city of Boston, instead of trying at an enormous 

 expense to rid themselves of their waste material by wash- 

 ing it from the face of the earth, and depositing it by the 

 island of the moon, could only discover some practical way 

 of condensing it, and forwarding it to us, old Mother-Earth 

 would soon become so fresh and fair that she would not know 

 herself when she looked in the glass, and the genial president 

 of our society would not have his quiet dreams disturbed, 

 like Hamlet's, by that ever rising ghost, our eight-thousand- 

 dollar debt. 



While it is a common saying in Plymouth County that 

 " farming doesn't pay," some of our citizens are demonstrat- 

 ing practically that they, at least, can get a comfortable liv- 

 ing from the soil. They do not aim at becoming Astors or 

 Vanderbilts ; but they love their calling, and are willing to 

 forego the so-called luxuries and the superfluities of life for 



