MRi-rriNO AT amhi':rs'j\ 17 



PUBLIC MKF/l'ING OF THE BOARD 



AT AMIIKUST. 



'J'lio usual winter inoctiu^s of the Board wcro hold at 

 Amherst, on Tuesday, Wechiesday and Thursday, Decemher 8, 

 and 10. 'I'hey were larj^ely attended, not only l)y the farmers 

 <)[' tlie immediate vicinity, but by many from distant portions of 

 the State, and were, perhaps, all things considered, the most 

 successful series of meetinj^s yet held hy the Board. 



Tiie first meeting was held in tlie laboratory building of the 

 Agricultural College, on the afternoon of December 8, and was 

 opened l)y an Address from President Claiik on 



TIIE WOllK AND TIIK WANTS OV TIIK COLLEGE. 



Gentlemen of lite Hoard of Af/riculture, and Ovemeera of the Massachusetts 



Afjricultural Collefje : 



You cannot know how glad I am to welcome you here. This 

 college is the result of jnany years of thought and labor, attended 

 with nnich anxiety and many disappointments; and the leaders 

 in tliis entcrf)rise have been men who have ])e(!n leaders in 

 other great undertakings, and theirworks testify that they were 

 fit to be leaders in this. Five years ago to-day this Board of 

 Agi'iculture held its first country meeting in S[)r'ingfiehi, and 

 what do you suppose was the very first subject considered l>y 

 the Board at its first country meeting? Agricultural Fdueation. 

 Prof. Johnson, of Yale College, occupied the afternoon witii an 

 elaborate account of the agricultural schools and colleges of the 

 woild. Then what? Was that enough? No. 'J'his Board 

 *werc so impressed with tlie importance (jf this suliject of agri- 

 cultural education, that they devoted tlie whole evening to it, 

 and had an address by the agricultural orator of Massachusetts, 

 l)v. Ceorgc B. Loring, who has done as mucli as any other man, 

 jjcrhaps, to help forward tiiis work in the recent years of effort. 



This Board, as many of the gentlemen present know, had its 

 origin in the idea that education was a necessity to successful 

 agriculture in Massachusetts. It was established to educate the 

 people of the fttate up to a point wliere they should he ready to 

 welcome the idea of an Agricultural College, and to make it a 

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