No. 4.] FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. 49 



He was followed by an eiiiinent farmer, Harvey Dodge of 

 Sutton, a citizen widely known for many things in his d-dv 

 as an agriculturist. ]\Ir. Dodge was followed by Mr. John 

 Brooks of Princeton, formerly a Boston broker, who after- 

 ward retired to a farm and became a successful farmer. He 

 used to have great influence with the ftirmers of the Com- 

 monwealth. Mr. Brooks was followed by Henry R. Keith 

 of Grafton, a relative of Secretary Flint. He was followed 

 by Thomas W. Ward of Shrewsbury, who was also a suc- 

 cessful farmer. I followed jMr. AYard, and if I had spent 

 six months longer on the Board, my term would have occu- 

 pied one-fourth of its existence. I have had two successors, 

 both men of prominence in our calling, — Mr. Hartshorn, 

 who was a member of the Board for twelve consecutive 

 years, and now by Mr. Ellsworth, who is now serving his 

 third term, — both intelligent and progressive farmers, im- 

 proving every opportunity for the success of the Board. 

 Great changes occur by the evolution of time, but five men 

 are now living who were my associates when I first became 

 a member of the Board, thirty years ago, and but three are 

 now present to enjoy this interesting occasion, replete with 

 the progress of the past and hope of the future. 



From its early beginnings the Board has continued in its 

 great work to the present time. It has assisted the Agricul- 

 tural College, in which it has had great interest, which has 

 turned out many young men who are now engaged in the 

 pursuit of agriculture, and are instructing others to be 

 farmers. The college itself, its grounds and its surround- 

 ings, is an object lesson by which we have all profited. 



Let me congratulate you that you have the pleasure of 

 attending this fiftieth anniversary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture ; and, while we have made progress in the last fifty 

 years in many directions, still, we have made less progress 

 in others ; and the fifty years that are to come will find the 

 State engaged in many different pursuits in agriculture from 

 those in which it is engaged at present. AYe shall get back 

 nearer the soil in the next fifty years, and I have no doubt 

 that we shall be more prosperous. As I said in beginning, 

 farming methods to-day are very different from those which 



