EEPOET OF THE DELEGATES TO THE FARMERS' 

 NATIONAL CONGRESS,* 



At Atlanta, Georgia, 1895. 



To His Excellency Frederic T. Greenhalge. 



Sir : — We acknowledge with pleasure the courtesy of 

 your appointment as delegates for the State of Massachu- 

 setts to the Farmers' National Congress, which held its 

 fifteenth annual session at Atlanta, Ga., on the 10th, 11th, 

 12th, 14th, 15th and 16th of October, in the year 1895, and 

 we report as follows. 



The Farmers' National Congress was organized at St. 

 Louis, in 1877. There were but few persons present at 

 the first meeting, but they were earnest and zealous in per- 

 fecting the organization, and were determined that it should 

 become a power for good to the farming interests of the 

 country. Since then the body has grown and flourished, 

 until at the present time it numbers nearly a thousand 

 regular and honorary members, covering every State in the 

 Union, and representing every manner of farming and 

 variety of farm products. 



The Congress is composed of the same number of regular 

 delegates as the Congress of the United States, the basis of 

 representation being the same ; the governor of each State 

 appoints and commissions the same number of delegates as 

 his State has representatives in the national Congress. In 

 addition thereto, every agricultural college in the States is 

 entitled to one representative. The Congress is non-par- 

 tisan, and holds itself aloof from partisan politics. 



In its later meetings are found men distinguished as the 

 representatives of agriculture, — men who till the soil, in- 



* This report has been transmitted to the secretary of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture by His Excellency the Governor, with the request that it be included in the 

 " Agriculture of Massachusetts." 



