114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



COUNTRY LIFE. 



BY REV. DR. RUSSELL H. CONWELL OF PHILADELPHIA. 



Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : I have seldom in 

 my life felt more conscience-stricken than at this moment, 

 — when I began to appreciate the importance of this ques- 

 tion and the magnitude of this subject, and thought how 

 little time I had to put upon it, — no time until to-day, — 

 and that I was obliged to drive here from Springfield since 

 one o'clock, arriving five minutes ago, and must speak 

 without my dinner. To come so suddenly upon so impor- 

 tant a theme and to speak in the presence of so large an 

 audience, with so little meditation, seems an almost un- 

 pardonable error. 



I never had my attention especially called to this theme 

 before, but, as I have meditated upon it in my ride from 

 Springfield, it has grown to such a size that I shrink from 

 contact with the boulder as it clino^s to the overhamjing 

 hills. I supposed that I was invited to talk to the Board 

 of Agriculture, and I do not like to leave that idea. I 

 think there are some thino;s that mio-ht be said to the Board 

 of Agriculture with profit also to the laymen who are not 

 on the Board of Agriculture, — and the ladies who have not 

 had that honor. Those of us who are farmers here in Mas- 

 sachusetts feel a great interest in our Board of Agriculture, 

 and we have some things to suggest as to their proceedings, 

 and some of these thoughts shall come from this farmer this 

 afternoon. 



The State Board of Agriculture I suppose was organized 

 for the purpose of making the farms of Massachusetts pay. 

 That is an important thing, but by no means the most im- 

 portant work of the Board of Agriculture. To make a 

 farm in the interior of Massachusetts, with its barren hills, 



