334 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Island poultry course. I was then more firmly convinced 

 than ever that the work of this Board was influencing even 

 our plain little Cape Cod farmers. 



I personally never attend these meetings without return- 

 ing home with an increased desire to be a better farmer 

 than I had been before. The educational feature of these 

 meetings should not be overlooked ; for that which we 

 acquire, which enables us to get more out of our lives as 

 farmers, and creates within us the desire to use the ability 

 of which we are possessed, is surely an influence for good. 



Take the early reports of this Board, published nearly 

 fifty years ago, and compare them with the reports pub- 

 lished during the last decade, note for a niomentthe changes 

 in the subject matter, and compare the statements of farm 

 experiments as then conducted with the work of our agri- 

 cultural teachers of the present. These reports, so carefully 

 edited by secretaries Charles L. Flint, John E. Russell, 

 Wm. R. Sessions and James W. Stockwell, are strong evi- 

 dence that the Board has an influence upon Massachusetts 

 agriculture. I have in my library a complete file, from 

 1852 to 1900, and occasionally enjoy very much reading 

 one of the earlier volumes, and comparing the agriculture 

 of that date with the present. 



While it is true that some of these reports may find their 

 way to the waste basket, with pages uncut, it is also true 

 that wide-awake farmers are each year inquiring if the 

 edition is out, being anxious to secure a copy, that they 

 may obtain some desired information from the same. It is 

 equally true that these reports cannot be carefully read 

 without exerting an influence for good upon the reader. 

 Compare for a moment the good derived from the reading 

 of these reports with the influence for good that is derived 

 from United States free seed distribution. 



And now, brother members, if I have proved to you that 

 this Board has been an influence for good upon the agri- 

 culture of this grand old Commonwealth, let us be fully 

 alive to the needs of an ever-advancing, ever-changing 

 condition. We must carefully study the situation, and 

 propose those changes for the benefit of our agricultural 



