1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 9 



another resolution providing for these very meetings, one of 

 which you are now holding here to-day, and stated that the 

 effect would be rapidly felt upon the farmers of the State. 

 Mr. John Brooks of Princeton (many of you remember him) , 

 one of the most earnest and intelligent farmers in the Com- 

 monwealth of Massachusetts, and Colonel Wilder, whose 

 memory is dear to all of you here and to all cultivators of 

 the soil throughout the Union, and myself, were appointed 

 a committee to organize these meetings. In that way this 

 series of assemblies commenced. 



The first meeting was held in December, 1863, just two 

 years after my first resolution was proposed. It was held 

 at Springfield, and there were gathered together a body of 

 men who satisfied at once the oificers of this Board, who 

 were previously filled w ith doubts in regard to the success of 

 the enterprise, that the farmers of the Commonwealth were 

 an intelligent and thoughtful body, even in those original 

 days ; notwithstanding the fact that we had been told that the 

 Board itself and the farmers of the Commonwealth were not 

 suflSciently well trained to carry on such service as has been 

 rendered from that day to this, that the debates could not 

 be of value, and the meetings themselves would not be of 

 any interest to the people of the State. Now, gentlemen, 

 how has this turned out? Why, from 1863 to this hour the 

 country meetings of the Board have constituted the great 

 strength and power of the Board, as I think. We have had 

 most excellent and able secretaries, who have done their 

 duty well ; but they will all tell you that the contents of the 

 reports which have been of actual service and interest to the 

 people of the State — to the farmers themselves, especially — 

 have grown out of the lectures and debates at the country 

 meetings of the Board. The efiect of these meetings should ' 

 never be forgotten. 



The relation of the farmer to the cultivation of the public 

 mind is a most interesting question. The farming instinct 

 which carried this State on for two centuries and more in 

 the great business of cultivating the somewhat sterile soil 

 in an unpropitious climate succeeded largely, it is true ; but 

 the time had arrived when the application of the most care- 

 fully prepared and most scientific principles and practice 



