xvi BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



audience for agricultural lectures and discussions, but, as 

 the lectures will appear in the annual report of the Board, 

 the local people were the only ones to lose by the nonattend- 

 ance. The Greenfield Board of Trade tendered an excellent 

 banquet to the Board of Agriculture and others attending 

 the meeting, on Wednesday evening. Prof. Rufus W. 

 Stimson, director of Smith's Agricultural School at North- 

 ampton, was the jDrincipal speaker. Other speakers of the 

 evening were Lieutenant-Governor-Elect Frothingham and 

 Representative Walker of Brookline. 



The annual business meeting of the Board was held at 

 Boston, on Jan. 12 and 13, 1909, and special business meet- 

 ings were held at the Barre summer meeting and at the 

 winter meeting. The minutes of these meetings, with re- 

 ports of committees, will be included in this volume. 



Agkiculttjeal Societies. 



The dry weather of the year, while detrimental to most 

 agricultural interests, seems to have been favorable to the 

 fairs of the agricultural societies. There has never been 

 a year when there were so few fairs suffering from un- 

 favorable weather, the only drawback to the enjoyment of 

 most of them being the clouds of dust that were created by 

 the trampling of men and animals on the dry and sun-baked 

 grounds. The industrial depression does not seem to have 

 affected their receipts materially, probably because people 

 are much more willing to curtail on necessities than on 

 pleasures ; and the balance should be on the right side for 

 almost all of the societies of the State. 



The matter of the revision of the premium lists of the 

 societies was referred to a committee at the last annual 

 meeting of the Board. That committee met and gave the 

 matter careful consideration. It will render its report 

 through its chairman, and I will not anticipate it at this 

 time. I will merely say that I consider its suggestions to 

 be excellent ones, fully in line with those which I have made 

 in the past, though worked out to better advantage, and would 

 urge that the Board adopt them and make them a part of 

 its rules for the government of the agricultural societies. 



