132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of apples. At our last exhibit these apples were large and 

 beautiful, and they attracted the attention of everybody who 

 visited our fair. It has taken the position now in Essex 

 County of an apple worthy of cultivation in that county. 



These country gatherings of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture, it seems to me, are of very great importance to 

 the farmers of the State. We come together and compare 

 notes one with the other, and we learn very much. What 

 is successful in one locality may be a failure in another, but 

 we go home with a determination in our minds as to what is 

 best for our locality or what is better than we now have. 



I want to say a word in regard to the delight I had this 

 morning in visiting our Agricultural College. Perhaps it is 

 known to you that I was a trustee of this institution during 

 its dark days, at the time it was running under an annual 

 debt of ten thousand dollars ; when the Legislature had 

 almost come to the determination that not another dollar 

 would they appropriate when it was being spent in that way ; 

 and they declared that they would not make an appropriation 

 unless the trustees themselves should become responsible for 

 any debt that might be incurred. I had the honor of being 

 a trustee at that time, and I used my influence, however little 

 or great it might have been, to lift this institution out of 

 that dark condition that was almost death to it. But it sur- 

 vived, and look to-day and see the results. I was delighted 

 to see the great changes that have taken place, the great im- 

 provements that have been made ; and it seems to me that 

 now we people of Massachusetts, we farmers of Massachu- 

 setts, have a plant in this college that is almost perfect in 

 every department. Look at the men who preside over this 

 institution. Look at them individually or collectively. Look 

 at the work they are publishing in bulletins from time to 

 time, and scattering about free to us all. Look at the char- 

 acter of these bulletins and the work that is put before us 

 in the annual report. This work is received as authority all 

 over the United States. I thank God that I have had the 

 pleasure of having been born in Massachusetts and on this 

 soil. 



Mr. Copeland. What would you do for the curl of the 

 peach leaves? 



