120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



everywhere a degree of prosperity of which the farmer ought 

 to be proud. 



I make these remarks because I vn a little tired, going 

 about as I do among the farm-houses and among the farmers, 

 and witnessing the prosperity and uniform general content- 

 ment of the farmers themselves, and the good appearance of 

 their buildings and land, — I am a little tired, I say, 

 of hearing the farmers of Massachusetts so continually 

 reflected upon, and having the charge thrown in their faces 

 that they are abandoning the homes of their fathers. There 

 is no occasion for any comparison, — not the slightest. 

 Farming is a business which goes up and goes down every- 

 where. It oscillates, like every other business. There are 

 many mills in Massachusetts to-day that are not making a 

 profit; but they will- come up again, they will revive; and, 

 if any farmer is compelled to suspend his operations for a 

 season, and wait for the new day to dawn, that day will as 

 surely come as he is capable of waiting patiently for it. 



I am happy of this opportunity to say this word or two, 

 which I have said much more elaborately elsewhere, with 

 regard to farming in our own section ; because this is 

 perhaps one of the last meetings of the Board that I shall be 

 able to attend, as my term of office expires in February, and 

 I shall undoubtedly be relegated to private life. But how- 

 ever that may be, I have said this as a parting word, to show 

 my faith in the farming of the section of the country in 

 which I live. 



Mr. Lynde. I would like to ask if it would be any advan- 

 tage to those who are engaged in farming to have agriculture 

 encouraged in the schools ? Have we not competition enough 

 now? In other words, are the boys who leave the farms 

 and go to the cities any damage to the boys who remain at 

 home on the farm? 



Dr. Twitchell. It is not competition we need, but 

 intelligence. I care not how much we have, we want more 

 of it. 1 do not uro;e agricultural education in the schools, 

 pure and simple, but I do urge the inculcation of a love of 

 natural things, which will give a boy, if he has a love for 

 agriculture, a better knowledge how to do the^work essential 

 to success. Give the children a knowledge of those natural 



