COUNTRY MEETING. 33 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



BY HON. CHAS. A. GLEASON OF NEW BRAINTREE. 



3Ir. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Agricid- 

 ture, — It becomes my most agreeable duty in behalf of the 

 Worcester AVest Agricultural Society to extend to 3^ou a most 

 hearty and cordial welcome. Both oiBcially and personally 

 I bid you welcome, — personally, being acquainted with 

 many members of the Board, having had legislative service 

 with some, even committee work in the same room ; offi- 

 cially, because I am sure I speak the sentiments and repre- 

 sent the feelings of the entire membership of the Society.. 

 It w^ill be remembered when an invitation was extended to 

 you at your meeting in Boston, by our honored chairman 

 and myself, it was urged as a reason why the Board should 

 come to Barre, that it was strictly an agricultural town, 

 and that you would come into the midst of a large circle of 

 intelligent farmers, who would gladly avail themselves of the 

 benefit of this meeting. I trust that the interest and attend- 

 ance at these meetings by the members of tliis Society will 

 prove our statements and predictions true, and that your 

 carefully prepared papers and able discussions will be listened 

 to by men who can make a practical test of the ncAV facts 

 brought out. The enjoyment and profit derived from a for- 

 mer meeting in this place is still fresli in some of our minds 

 and has been an incentive to ask you to come again. Then 

 the stage-coach brought you a long distance. Since then the 

 steam-car has wound its way among these hills, connecting us 

 with the Fitchlmrg Road on the north and the Boston & 

 Albany on the south, and now hope "long deferred" seems 

 about to be realized that we shall have direct railroad con- 

 nection with Boston and the eastern part of the State by way 

 of the Massachusetts Central, so that while many of you 

 came here indirectly by rail, at your next meeting here you 

 can come directly from your own homes. 



I desire very briefly to call your attention to a few facts 

 in the history of the Society. It was incorporated in 1851, 

 and for fourteen years held its fairs on the common in front 

 of this hall, prospering under the able management of a class 

 of energetic citizens, whose actions and decisions were but 



