26 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



We hope your visit will be so pleasant that you will want 

 to come again. We hope that you will have a good time, 

 and that it will be beneficial to all. 



Secretary Stockwell. Mr. E. W. Wood, second vice- 

 president of this Board, will respond to the address of wel- 

 come by Mr. Beals, and will hereafter have charge of these 

 meetings as the presiding officer. 



Mr. Wood. I desire to express, in behalf of the members 

 of the Board, our thanks to the gentleman who has preceded 

 me for this cordial welcome. 



It has been the practice of the State Board of Agriculture, 

 since 1863, to hold, in some part of the Commonwealth, 

 what we term a " winter meeting." The management of 

 these meetings and the place of holding them are decided at 

 the annual meeting held in January, After the decision of 

 the location, a committee consisting of the delegates living 

 nearest the location is appointed to make the arrangements 

 for the meeting. These meetings have been held in this 

 form since 1863. The work of the committee has been to 

 make all preparations for the meeting, l)y selecting the 

 topics, and these have been selected with a view to the loca- 

 tion where the meeting is to be held. Such topics as will 

 interest the majority of farmers in the vicinity are selected. 

 The committee also procures the speakers to address the 

 meeting. The object in securing speakers has been to get 

 men who, either from practical experience or scientific 

 knowledge or both combined, are competent to give instruc- 

 tion on the themes they discuss, which Avill be of practical 

 value to the farmers throughout the State. 



In coming to W^estfield, our farmers understand that they 

 come to a part of the State most favorably located for agri- 

 cultural interests. - Our farmers who come from the eastern 

 part of the State, where portions of the soil are so encum- 

 bered with rocks and boulders as to be cultivated with great 

 difficulty, and where other portions of the soil are so shallow 

 and light that a crop almost entirely depends on the fertilizer 

 applied, — when they come to look into the Connecticut 

 valley, where they see the wide, level fields, where the 

 plough is not disturbed by a stone, where you need to use 

 but a small quantity of fertilizer, it is rather discouraging to 



