18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



State, and they will find more valuable information than in 

 almost any other work. Almost an entire revolution has taken 

 place in the received principles and practices of cultivation dur- 

 ing the existence of the Board, and much of this can be traced 

 to the investigations of its members and the publication of their 

 experience, thus not only teaching each other, but making the 

 knowledge of one the property of all. 



The Massachusetts Board of Agriculture is now a permanent 

 department of the State government, receiving the confidence 

 and favor of the people. It has established a uniform system of 

 oi)erations in the local societies. Its office is continually open 

 to the people of this State and the Union and other lands, and 

 its Secretary is in correspondence with similar associations both 

 at home and abroad, and thus is able to keep up with the progress 

 of improvement, receiving information and distributing the 

 results of his investigations and the deliberations of the Board. 



Gentlemen, we live in an age of remarkable activity, of 

 startling enterprise, of noble achievement, — an age which has de- 

 veloped the most stupendous results in the march of civilization 

 and all the arts of life. Discoveries, inventions, and improve- 

 ments in the great industrial pursuits we seek to promote, bear 

 witness to the same progressive march. Never before has the 

 cultivator of the soil had such advantages for the acquisition of 

 knowledge, and never before have the energies of mankind been 

 so profoundly moved and actively engaged in efforts to relieve 

 toil, reward labor, and multiply the blessings and comforts of 

 life. How remarkable the improvements which characterize the 

 arts of husbandry ! Compare the old wooden plough of our boy- 

 hood with the modern iron plough, suited to all soils and situa- 

 tions, or, if you please, with the gigantic steam plough, moving 

 across the broad prairie like a thing of life, turning up its 

 numerous furrows at once, and leaving behind a wake like that 

 of a majestic ship. Compare the old scythe and sickle of our 

 fathers, tediously gathering up their crops, with our wonderful 

 mowing and reaping machines, cutting down their ten to twenty 

 acres per day, — aye, or go with me to the vast grain-fields of the 

 great West, look down that broad valley, see those two hundred 

 reaping machines, followed by a thousand men, women and 

 children, binding up the golden sheaves at the rate of two hun- 

 dred acres per hour. Look at the improved methods of cultiva- 



