PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 235 



Mr. Root. I do not rise to make any remarks. I know 

 that this auciience have been charmed and instructed by the 

 admirable lecture to which we have listened, and I rise sim- 

 ply to sui2:gest that the Chairman call upon a gentleman 

 whom I notice in the audience ; a gentleman whose wide ob- 

 servation and experience in carrying on experiments both in 

 this State and the State of New York, in positions of high 

 responsibility, abundantly fit him to speak on this occasion ; 

 a gentleman who has been selected by the Board of Trustees 

 of your Agricultural College to preside over an important 

 department, that of agriculture, and to guide our youth and 

 stimulate them to the acquisition of a thorough knowledge 

 of progressive, scientific agriculture. I refer to Professor 

 Alvord of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



The Chatrmax. The audience will be pleased to listen to 

 Major Alvord. 



Major Alvord. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, — 

 This is a very unexpected call to me. Naturally enough I 

 took this opportunity to again be present at a meeting of 

 the Massachusetts Board, and while I might have joined in 

 any discussion arising after the entertaining paper which we 

 have heard, I confess to being a good deal staggered by the 

 introduction with which I am called forward at this time. 



Perhaps nothing can be more appropriate in following the 

 paper that we have just heard read with so much pleasure 

 and profit, than to take up a suggestion of the writer and 

 enlarge briefly upon it ; namely, considering the plow as an 

 illusti"ation of the progressive agriculture of the world. 



I believe that our first recorded history is in the form of 

 sculptures upon ancient tombs and monuments in Asia Minor 

 and Egypt. In Asia Minor an ancient slab has been found, 

 which probably dates back between 3,500 and 4,000 years, 

 and shows the plow in the form which has been mentioned, 

 of a crooked stick, managed by six men. The plow then 

 consisted of the essential pails which we recognize to-day. 

 The plow-beam was long, extending upwards at a sharp 

 angle so as to rest upon the shoulders of the two leaders of 

 the four-man team. About half-way down the beam the 

 other two men grasped it by hand. It turned at the junction 

 of the beam and the share,' and there had two handles at- 



