42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



beauties impress me more and more from year to year, grow 

 upon me as I see them from time to time. Of course you 

 do not, at this season of the year, see it in its full beauty. 

 You should visit it in June or October. But we welcome 

 you to it at any time. 



Northampton has, within a few years, changed its charac- 

 ter greatly. Its industry has changed from one almost 

 entirely agricultural to an educational centre, and with man- 

 ufacturing interests, but the farming interest is still the pre- 

 ponderating interest in many respects, and I am happy to 

 say that its thoughts and ways are guided and leavened 

 largely by the stability and conservative views of the farm- 

 ers of Northampton and the neighboring towns. 



We are especially glad to meet you here, and the subjects 

 which you intend to consider have a special interest for us, 

 and we are in entire sympathy with youv efforts to dignify 

 and add pleasure to that most ancient and honorable and 

 useful vocation of agriculture. 



But the audience did not come here to listen to me or to 

 hear me talk, and I will not detain them longer from that in 

 which they are interested. 



The Chair. The next number on the programme is a 

 response for the Board of Agriculture by His Honor John 

 L. Bates. I understand he is not present. If he were here 

 he would make an eloquent address, which the Board of 

 Agriculture would be proud of and which we should all 

 enjoy. The kind and cordial welcome which the mayor has 

 given us deserves a cordial response, and in the absence of 

 the Lieutenant-Governor your humble servant, in the posi- 

 tion of presiding officer, must thank him and the citizens of 

 Northampton for the hearty welcome which they have ex- 

 tended to us. 



The Board of Agriculture has met in Northampton once 

 before, and the winter meeting held here then (1<S82) was a 

 successful one. Our honored, valued and loved friend, the 

 Hon. John E. Russell, then attended to the matters of the 

 Board as its secretary, and the meeting was successful. 



This is the thirty-ninth winter meeting of the Board, rive 

 of which have been held in this county. This Board has 



