350 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



productions of our own growing to make us proud of our 

 Bay State fair, and of the substantial evidences of our 

 farming. My conclusion is, — seeing the general solvency 

 of the farmers, and regarding individual expressions deroga- 

 tory to the general prosperity of the farmers as misleading 

 and incorrect ; and thinking that the establishment and per- 

 petuation of our agricultural institutions by the Legislature 

 of the Commonwealth is convincing evidence of the confi- 

 dence of the people in sustaining a necessary and reasonably 

 prosperous occupation, — that all these, with a scrutiny of 

 the figures of our census, show unmistakably a great and 

 substantial progress in the agriculture of the State, and in 

 the condition of the tillers of the soil. 



