viii BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc, 



of the past, except where the forsaking was a matter of cir- 

 cumstance, or an advance to agriculture. 



Toward these ends the Board of Agriculture is moving in 

 leading the intelligent investigator to the newer yet safer 

 lines of })roduction just before us. Look at the lectures 

 and discussions of the winter meetings of the Board, and 

 note the forward movement breathing in every one of them, 

 and be convinced that this meeting is of ver}^ great value 

 to the State. 



In our institute work, to which 3^our attention will be 

 called later, we meet the farmers in more heart-to-heart 

 talks, that are practical and effective. Their value is attested 

 by the great nmiiber of requests for speakers we cannot grant 

 because of the limit of the appropriation. While these in- 

 stitutes are given to each agricultural society, there are very 

 many of them combined with the meetings of the grange, 

 the farmers' clubs, the fruit growers' association, and they 

 are carefully distributed to benefit agriculture the most pos- 

 sible, in every part of the State. - Our speakers are care- 

 fully chosen by the committee in charge of this department 

 to teach from practical knowledge in every line of practical 

 farming, from greenhouse culture to forestry, from more 

 profitable dairy farming to greater roadside beauty and im- 

 provement. 



Changes in the Board. 



As heretofore, changes in membership resulting from 

 elections by the several societies will be noted in the report 

 of the committee on credentials in the proceedings of the 

 annual meeting. During the past year Dr. Austin Peters, 

 chief of the Cattle Bureau, became an ex-officio member of 

 the Board, under the provisions of Acts of 1902, chapter 

 116. 



Members retiring at this time because of cx})irati()n of 

 term of service or by resignation are : J. S. Appleton of 

 the Nantucket Agricultural Society ; Charles B. Benedict 

 of the Ilousatonic Agricultural Society ; Joshua Clark of 

 the Middlesex North Agricultural Society ; F, W. Sargent 

 of the Amesbury and Salisbury Agricultural and Horticul- 

 tural Society ; Wesley B. Barton of the Berkshire AgTicul- 



