FARMING OF WORCESTER COUNTY. 7 



Mr. Hadwen addressed the meeting as follows : — 



Gentlemen of the State Board of Agriculture : — In behalf 

 of the committee of arrangements, and in conformity with a 

 custom which has grown into favor with these meetings, it 

 becomes my duty, as their chairman, to call this assembly to 

 order. I do this with the greater pleasure, as I am thus able, 

 personally as well as officially, to welcome you, gentlemen, to 

 the heart of the Commonwealth, the centre of agricultural 

 interests, second to none in variety and importance within 

 the limits of your official supervision. 



I welcome you to the goodly city of Worcester, where almost 

 every industry thrives upon a patronage not limited by state 

 or national boundaries, — and I welcome you to Horticultural 

 Hall, the headquarters in this city of one of the interests you 

 have especially in keeping. 



The time and place would inspire almost any other than 

 myself with words corresponding with the surroundings and 

 the occasion. I would I had the gifts upon which inspiration 

 moves and through which it makes itself interestingly mani- 

 fest ; then, gentlemen, the embarrassing duties of my position 

 here would lose themselves in the pleasure with which I 

 should address you in welcome. 



I esteem it fortunate for the agriculture and the horticulture 

 of our county that the Board meets at Worcester and in this 

 our Horticultural Hall. Gathered as you are from every por- 

 tion of the State, your discussions will spread abroad useful 

 knowledge, coupled with descriptive experience, both tending 

 to develop those agricultural resources of the State and county 

 which are so essential to the happiness and prosperity of both. 



I need not remind you of the benign influence such gather- 

 ings exert in promoting "the most healthful, the most useful, 

 and the most honorable employment of man." 



Worcester County, lying in the central portion of the State, 

 traversing its entire width, compares favorably in respect to 

 its fertility of soil with any county in the Commonwealth. 

 The farming mostly pursued here is what is commonly called 

 " mixed farming," the dairy being the most prominent and 

 leading interest. All the cereals, fruits, roots and grasses 

 that this latitude favors, thrive here. In many towns, a high 



