COUNTRY IMEETING. 35 



some that was not the best) . But the competition of the 

 great West and the decline of the foreign market has closed 

 the last factory, and most of them have passed into other 

 hands. Their day and generation has passed away, till now 

 the cream-gatherer calls at our farms or the Boston milk-can 

 is left at our doors. Throu2:h all these chanajes these faiTas 

 have been pouring out their thousands of tons of milk every 

 year, and whether made into butter, cheese, or sold as milk, 

 has a reputation for quality surpassed by few sections. It 

 has been raising milk in the past ; it must be in the future. 

 But with all the natural advantages of dairying these towns 

 possess, both in the past and the present, it is carried on with 

 discouragements and under many difficulties. Formerly it 

 was our long distance from market. Within the memory 

 of many here the entire produce of these towns was trans- 

 ported to Boston on four-horse teams ; now the railroad has 

 brought a market to our doors, but with it a competition 

 which has almost threatened our existence. Every stalk of 

 grain that is cultivated and every plant that grows has 

 become the prey of some ravaging worm or insect, necessi- 

 tating a constant war of destruction upon these pests. This 

 soil, in its virgin fertility, which brought forth almost spon- 

 taneously, noAv requires heavy reinforcement with costly fer- 

 tilizers. Incurable diseases attack our stock and oft-recurrinoj 

 midsummer drought render our crops a partial or total fail- 

 ure ; and for these reasons the farmers of Massachusetts need 

 all the encouragement they can receive from the local soci- 

 eties, all the help they can derive from your honorable Board 

 in way of advancement of agricultural science, all the aid 

 and protection they are entitled to by legislation ; and they 

 tnust have a resolute purpose, vigorous methods and busi- 

 ness plans like other men, — yes, more than other men, — with 

 industry and economy, and they will win success, as in the 

 past, and these hills and valleys will still be fruitful. We 

 have not only raised the fruits of the soil, but men who, as 

 good citizens, have done honor to their native hills, — men of 

 influence and power in our State and Nation, men whose 

 loyalty and patriotism was never questioned in the day of our 

 country's peril, and whose services and valor on the field of 



