PUBLIC WINTER MEETING OF THE BOARD, 

 AT BARKE. 



The annual public winter meeting of the Board, for lec- 

 tures and discussions, was held at the Town Hall, Barre, on 

 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 5, G and 7, 1911. 

 The attendance was good, being especially so on the second 

 day, the lectures of a very high order, and the discussions the 

 best and most helpful for some years. 



The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m., on Tuesday by 

 Secretary Ellsworth. Mr. John L. Smith of Barre presided, 

 and introduced IMr. James x\. Bice, former president of the 

 Worcester County West Agricultural Society, who delivered 

 the address of welcome. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME, BY JAMES A. RICE. 



It is my privilege to offer to you the greetings of the 

 Worcester County West Agricultural Society and the people 

 of Barre, on this third visit of the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture to our town. At the meeting held in this hall twenty- 

 six years ago, your Board was greeted, on behalf of the town, 

 by a gentleman well known to many of you, Mr. J. Henry 

 Goddard, and on behalf of the society, by a gentleman whom 

 I hope we may see at this meeting and who is well known to 

 all of you, the Hon. Charles A. Gleason, at that time of New 

 Braintree. I wish I were able to-day to offer you greetings 

 in the same graceful manner as these gentlemen, but they are 

 no less cordial and sincere, though not so well expressed. 



Agriculture is still the most important industry of our 

 town. We have suffered, as other I^^ew England towns have 

 suffered, in that during the past fifty years much of the best 

 manhood and womanhood of the community has gone to 



