64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



Evening Session. 



The meeting was called to order at 7.45. 



The Chairman. The Governor, by virtue of his office, is 

 chairman of the State Board of Agriculture. He is with us 

 to-night, and will address you and take charge of the meet- 

 ing. I have the pleasure of introducing to you Governor 

 Brackett, whom you all know. 



ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR BRACKETT. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — One of the evidences of the 

 importance, in the estimation of the Commonwealth, of the 

 work of the Board of Agriculture, is found in the law which 

 provides that the Governor of the State shall be a member 

 of the Board. Whenever he is present at one of its meet- 

 ings, it is his province, as has been stated, to preside. I 

 have come here this evening for that purpose rather than to 

 deliver any formal address. It has seemed especially fitting 

 that I should render this service at this time, as the lecture 

 of the evening is to be delivered by the chief magistrate of 

 a sister State. I am very glad to be here to meet him, to 

 greet him, to pay him my respects, and to give him an offi- 

 cial welcome to the Commonwealth. This is not the first 

 time he has visited Massachusetts. During the Encamp- 

 ment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Boston last 

 summer he was there, and spoke, I know, greatly to the 

 satisfaction and delight of those who had the good fortune 

 to hear him. I know that you will all be glad to listen to 

 him this evening. The subject of his address, coupled with 

 the fact that he is the editor of a well-known agricultural 

 periodical which is devoted especially to the dairy interests 

 of the country, suggests to me the propriety of a brief al- 

 lusion, during my few introductory remarks, to the dairy 

 interests of Massachusetts. 



The importance of this branch of our agricultural industries 

 is evidenced by the last census, from which it appears that the 

 dairy products of Massachusetts were in value more than 

 twenty-seven per cent of the entire agricultural products of 

 the State. Their value was upwards of thirteen millions of 

 dollars, and I presume that the census of the present year 



