MEMORIAL OF CHARLES L. FLINT. 137 



seven years. He was also Secretar}' of the Board of Trustees of 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural College for a long time, and when 

 President William S. Clark resigned his position, Mr. Flint 

 was called upon to assume those official duties until a permanent 

 president could be found. He always had an ardent desire to 

 promote the education of young men in the higher branches of 

 agricultural science, and during the year that he held the presi- 

 dency his enthusiasm exerted a strong influence in advancing the 

 interests of that cause. All his duties in connection with the 

 college were faithfully and efficiently performed, in addition to his 

 regular work as Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. The 

 death of Hon. Marshall P. Wilder made vacant the office of Presi- 

 dent of the Massachusetts Agricultural Club, and Mr. Flint was 

 at once elected to that office, which he continued to hold while he 

 lived. Of the members of this Societ}' the speaker was the last 

 one to see Mr. Flint. 



Benjamin P. Ware said he also was thoroughl}' acquainted with 

 Mr. Flint, who was a native as well as a resident of Essex County 

 in early life. The story of his life was one of the most remarkable 

 as showing how little we know of the duties in life which are wait- 

 ing for us. Mr. Flint once said to him that the prizes he had won 

 helped him very greatly ; that on one occasion, while waiting in 

 the railroad depot at Salem, he saw the advertisement of a prize 

 of twenty dollars for the best essay upon " Indian Corn," offered 

 by the Essex Agricultural Society. After some consideration of 

 the matter he decided to try his power to win that prize. He went 

 to Cambridge to make some studies for the work. While so 

 doing he became deeply interested in the historical view of his 

 subject, and in his essa}^ he presented a thorough and exhaustive 

 history of Indian Corn from its introduction among civilized 

 people.' It won the prize; but that was not all. It attracted 

 the attention of Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, who had also read and 

 appreciated other writings of Mr. Flint upon agricultural topics. 

 Col. Wilder was then interested in making the projected State 

 Board of Agriculture a successful and permanent institution. He 

 believed that result depended largely upon the person who was 

 selected as its Secretary, — that whoever it might be must organize 

 and establish the department. The character and quality of Mr. 

 Flint's essays convinced Col. Wilder that the writer was the person 

 who should be secured for that secretarj'ship. His associates 



