28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



From the temporary disability of Colonel Wilder, to meet and 

 act with us, we may learn to estimate the value of his active 

 and efficient services in all that advances our agricultural 

 interests. To be deprived, even for a season, of the counsel and 

 aid of the recognized head of one branch of agriculture — of the 

 inspiring energy of the founder of the United States Agricultural 

 Society, — of the zeal of the earliest advocate of an agricultural 

 college, — of the devotion of an ardent believer in agricultural 

 education, — of the tact and sagacity of the director of most of 

 our deliberations, is a loss whicli we must all sensibly feel at this 

 time, and one which we have reason to hope will not be long 

 continued. 



I have said that the chief object of our meeting at this time, is 

 the encouragement by every means in our power, of agricultural 

 education. It was for the collection and diffusion of knowledge 

 relating to the various branches of farming that this Board was 

 established. Previous to its existence, the agricultural journals, 

 and the records of agricultural societies, were the principal 

 sources of information to the farmers of the Commonwealth. 

 Tiie latter productions were chiefly confined to the locality in 

 which they were published, and did not furnish any condensed 

 and well-arranged comparative view of the operations of various 

 sections and counties. From the earliest compilations by the 

 Secretary of the Commonwealth, and the reports drawn up with 

 so much zeal and interest by Mr. Colman, down to the present 

 time, the amount of information collected by the members of 

 the Board and by the indefatigable industry of the Secretary, 

 and distributed by the liberality of the legislature, is large and 

 valuable. That attractive volume, known througliout the Com- 

 monwealth as the " Agriculture of Massachusetts, by C. L. 

 Flint," lias become a text-book among oui* farmers, and as a 

 compendium of the efforts of the practical, and the thoughts of 

 the theoretical, is one of the most useful and interesting of our 

 public documents. The well-selected library, and the appro- 

 priate and systematic museum, which have grown up under the 

 care of those interested in and connected with this Board, also 

 bear witness to its useful labors. And the relations between 

 the agriculture of Massachusetts, and that of other States, and 

 even of Europe, which have grown out of the organization of 

 this body, are among the most agreeable and valuable of its 



