6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



representative for the time being, most heartily thank you. 

 I am very ghid indeed to see you here. I believe that the 

 occasion will be one of profit to you. I trust that your 

 meetings will be interesting, instructive and profitable ; that 

 you will feel and believe, when you leave us for your homes, 

 that something has been added to your knowledge that will 

 be of value to you for years to come, and that you one and 

 all will hereafter look back upon this meeting with pleasure 

 and satisfaction, and I trust that you will look forward in 

 the future to a repetition of it with as much pleasure as we 

 in the future shall be glad to see you here again. 



The Chairman. I now have the pleasure of introducing 

 to you the Rev. Charles S. Brooks of Fitchburg, who will 

 deliver the opening address. 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



BY REV. C. S. BROOKS OF FITCHBURG. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the State Board of 

 Agriculture : — Conventions are mountain summits which 

 men of various vocations ascend for prospect, inspiration, 

 deliberation and improvement of plans. You have come up 

 onto this height of your annual assembly for discovery, and 

 practical progress in your art of agriculture. I have read 

 that ' ' Canning used to say that the House of Commons as a 

 body had better taste than the man of the best taste in it ; 

 and ]\Iacaulay was much inclined to think that Canning was 

 right." Your convention doubtless will happily and help- 

 fully realize this interpretation of Canning, and the summit 

 of your wisdom will be reached in the ao;<Treo:ate of the 

 genius of your membership. I am glad to greet you and 

 participate with you as a company of seers convened to 

 advance the standard of 3^our craft. I may essay to speak 

 briefly upon the theme, "The Threefold Vocation of the 

 Agriculturist." 



His ofiicial vocation is that of a husbandman. That goes 

 without saying. When chosen delil)erately and pursued 

 enthusiastically as a science and a noble ai-t, it is a vocation 

 of great area and opportunity. One of your eminent 

 apostles, Dr. George B. Loring, if therein a little extrava- 



