218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON INSTITUTES AND PUBLIC 



MEETINGS. 



[Read and accepted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 13, 1904.] 



The summer meeting of the Board was held at Amherst, 

 thus giving the members of the Board an opportunity to 

 look over the farm and see the various experiments under 

 trial, and also to see the results of experiments tried in past 

 years. 



The cattle, the trees in the orchards, as well as the vege- 

 tables in the gardens, gave valuable information to the mem- 

 bers and others who were present, undoubtedly giving them 

 important facts that they had never before been brought in 

 connection with. If members of the Board would visit the 

 farm every year, or once in three years, it would undoubt- 

 edly increase their interest in the farm, by giving them a 

 better understanding of the numerous experiments that are 

 continually being tried. 



To see the college and the buildings erected for its use 

 cannot do otherwise than increase the farmer's interest in it, 

 and create a desire that his and his neighbor's boys should 

 have a more thorough education than they can get at home. 



The country meeting of the Board was held at Athol, and 

 was very successful. The lectures were of a high order, 

 and the attendance was much larger than usual. There can 

 be no doubt that these meetings, held in difierent i)arts of the 

 State, are beneficial to the people. 



The farmers' institutes have l)een held as in years past, 

 and the interest in them is increasing every year. The 

 lectures given are more intelligent and better prepared than 

 in the past, because there is better knowledge of hoAV to 

 prepare the soil and how to care for and harvest the crops 



