15(5 BOARD OF AGRI€ULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



attending the meeting. His Excellency John L. Bates, 

 Governor, ex officio president of tlie Board, Avas present. 

 Miss Edna Dean Proctor was present by re(|uest, and re- 

 cited an original poem, entitled "Columbia's Emblem," the 

 golden corn. 



The Chair invited Dr. L. M. Palmer of South Framing- 

 ham, the re})resentative of the Board of Trade and the citi- 

 zens of the town, to extend greeting. 



ADDRESS BY DR. L. M. PALMER. 



Mr. Chairman, His Excellency the Governor, ladies and 

 gentlemen, it is my very pleasing duty and privilege and 

 honor to extend to you the greeting of the Framingham 

 Board of Trade, and to bring to you the heartiest good will 

 and wishes of the good town of Framingham. I think it is 

 perfectly justifiable in me to-night if I assume a little spirit 

 of boasting, and say that I am proud to speak for the good 

 old town of Framingham. We are proud of the fact that 

 that prince of men, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once said that 

 his ideal of life was to have a home in the city of Boston 

 and a country home in a beautiful town like Framingham. 

 We are proud, sir, of our public school sj^stem. We are 

 proud of our State normal school, — the oldest normal school 

 in the State. We are proud, sir, of our churches, and the 

 good moral tone in our town. We are proud, sir, of our 

 State muster field, where we have received for many years 

 the army of the State, of which you have the honor to be 

 the Commander-in-Chief. It is generally acknowledged that 

 you look well upon horsel)ack ; we are glad to meet you 

 upon a peace footing. I regret very much that it is not 

 within my power to speak as a farmer. I was a farmer 

 once, and, if I had been consulted upon the matter, no 

 higher honor could have been conferred upon me than to 

 have been a farmer's son. My friends are disposed to poke 

 fun at me when I say my highest ambition in life at the 

 present time is to be able to say that I am a farmer, and a 

 member of the Middlesex South Agricultural Society. But 

 for the past twenty-five years my farming has been only 

 public farming. I greet you, sir, in the name of the Fram- 



