18 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of our poor soil made us struggle the harder, and turn out a 

 race of hardy, strong and vigorous men, who have made the 

 country what it is. 



England has devoted herself of late years almost entirely 

 to manufactories, and is compelled to call upon the rest of 

 the world for her food supplies, and she will at some time 

 suffer for it severely. The drop in the price of lands, the 

 lessened interest in agriculture, as shown for the past sixty 

 years in England, must necessarily injure the country and 

 stop its proper development. 



After all, the basis of all prosperity in a nation rests on 

 her farmers. "We cannot run our cotton mills without cotton, 

 our woolen mills without wool from the sheep, and our boot 

 and shoe factories without hides from the cattle. We all of 

 us, too, when worn out by mental work necessary in profes- 

 sional and mercantile pursuits, must fall back on contact with 

 the soil, like Hercules of old in his contest with the giant 

 Atlas. The folk lore of nations and the mythology of the 

 ancients are but the crystallization and condensing of the 

 experience of ages. They are put in the form of legends and 

 stories, and so are more easily understood and comprehended 

 by the mass of the people. Of such is the story of the giant 

 Atlas, whose overcoming was one of the tasks set Hercules. 

 Atlas upheld the world on his shoulders. Hercules could do 

 nothing so long as Atlas was in touch with the soil. Every 

 time he was felled to the earth, he jumped up with redoubled 

 strength. Hercules could not conquer him until he held him 

 in the air, out of contact with the mother earth. So it is 

 with ourselves. Each time we come in touch with the soil 

 we gather renewed strength and health. 



We feel that our society is one of if not the strongest and 

 best in the United States, and that it is more alive and more 

 earnest in its endeavors to promote the welfare of the com- 

 munity than any other organization of the same kind. 



This also, we feel, applies to the Massachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture. We must work hand in hand and side by side 

 for the general success of the ends towards which we are 

 struggling. Let me assure you that you have the hearty 

 good-will and best wishes of every member of this society in 



