20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pah. Doc. 



RESPONSE FOR THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, BY 

 FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT WILLIAM R. SESSIONS. 



I see the secretary and committee have put upon the 

 programme a reply to this address of welcome by your 

 vice-president. I feel entirely unequal to replying to the 

 eleo-ant address which we have heard and the cordial wel- 

 come which we have received. 



The Massachusetts Board of Agriculture is here for a pur- 

 pose, as it has been annually, in its winter meeting, for 

 many years past in different places. The effort of the Board 

 through its committees has been to hold these meetings in 

 various localities from 3'ear to year, so that all the people of 

 the State might have equal share in the benefits which may 

 come from the lectures. 



We come to Framingham this year through the invitation 

 first of the Middlesex South Agricultural Society, and then 

 of its people ; and we are glad to come, having been here 

 before in years past. We are glad to come because Fram- 

 ingham is a town of which the people of Massachusetts are 

 proud. The old historian said in 1837 that the soil of 

 Framingham was well calculated for the production of rye 

 and corn, and that every acre was susceptible to cultivation. 

 Framingham is a unique town in that respect. 



The re})resentatives of this society on the Board of Agri- 

 culture have been among the most useful of its members, 

 and we are o-lad to come here in recognition of the efforts 

 of the men whom you have sent as delegates to the Board 

 of Agriculture. The first was Wm. G. Lewis, then came 

 Henry H. Peters, Elias Grout, John Johnson, Jr., J. N. 

 Sturtevant, Elijah Perry, Thomas J. Damon, S. B. Bird, 

 and Isaac Damon, the son of Thomas J. As we look further 

 at the record of this magnificent county of Middlesex, and 

 the men she has given to agriculture, we are still more grat- 

 ified to have this winter meeting in this place. Among those 

 names you will find Simon Brown, E. W. Bull, John B. 

 Moore, Asa Clement, Louis Agassiz, Leverett Saltonstall, 

 James F. C. Hyde, E. F. Bowditch, A. C. Varnum, W. 

 W. Rawson, K S. Shaler, N. I. Bowditch, E. W. AYood 



