8 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



would be of benefit to the Board and the agriculture of the 

 State to have meetings held in other sections of the Common- 

 wealth than in Boston, and at other seasons of the year than 

 winter; and the resolution contained the idea that there 

 should be three meetings during the season, — one at 

 Worcester, one at Springfield, and one at Pittsfield, — it 

 occurring to my mind that that was about the length of the 

 Commonwealth itself. 



The resolution was referred to a committee, from which, by 

 some unaccountable oversight of the presiding officer of that 

 day, my name was omitted, and which was organized in an- 

 tagonism to the resolution. The report of the committee 

 was, that the financial burden then resting upon the Common- 

 wealth was so great that it was impracticable and hardly 

 proper that the expenses of the State should be increased by 

 the encouragement of the Board of Agriculture, — a board 

 which we thought at that time, and think still, is entitled to 

 as much consideration as any other board in the Common- 

 wealth. That report was accepted in February of the year 

 1862. True to the perseverance and energy of every Massa- 

 chusetts farmer, in December following, one year after my 

 first resolution was proposed, I ofi'ered another resolution, 

 havins: stated that, while we considered Massachusetts was 

 burdened by the great obligations of the war, and that the 

 necessities of the times did make economy imperatively 

 necessary, still, we thought, in view of the fiict that other 

 States were engaged liberally and somewhat extensively in en- 

 couraging agriculture, Massachusetts, which we looked upon 

 as a prosperous and powerful Commonwealth, ought to do 

 her duty also in that direction. I suppose these remarks 

 produced an influence favorable to the Board ; and in Decem- 

 ber, 1862, I oftered another resolution^ stating that the busi- 

 ness of the Board should be distributed among the farmers 

 themselves ; and that, whenever the usefulness of the Board 

 should be perfected, it would be found that country meet- 

 ings would be of the utmost service, and that the influence 

 of those meetings on the agriculture of the State would be 

 rapidly and largely felt. That resolution was referred to a 

 committee ; and, the courtesy of the presiding officer having 

 placed me upon it as chairman, in January, 1863, I ofiered 



