No. 4.] RESPONSE FOR THE BOARD. 33 



seventeen or eighteen years, and the increase of this industry 

 has been tremendous durino; that time. 



To-morrow you are to have the dairy industry discussed, 

 and I think it is safe to say that one-third of the agricultural 

 productions of Massacliusetts are tlie dairy products. It is 

 a very important industry in this county, and it is very for- 

 tunate that you discovered a matter of that importance for 

 discussion. Then, too, you are to have the fertility of the 

 soil discussed, how to keep it fertile and how to keep it from 

 becoming exhausted. And you are to discuss a campaign 

 for rural improvement, which we are all interested in. And 

 so I might go through the list. Every subject is important, 

 and every subject is one which everj^ farmer ought to 

 be interested in ; and therefore I say, on behalf of the 

 Worcester Agricultural Society, we welcome your arrival, 

 and when you depart we shall bid you God speed. 



RESPONSE FOR THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, BY 

 FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT WM. R. SESSIONS. 



I see the secretary has upon the programme a reply to 

 these addresses of welcome by the vice-president. It is too 

 much of a task for me to follow in order the pleasant words 

 which have been said to us here ; but I want to assure these 

 gentlemen, the city of Worcester, the two societies, that the 

 Board of Agriculture appreciates Worcester, appreciates her 

 agricultural society and her horticultural society, and the 

 secretaries which Worcester County has given to the Board 

 of Agriculture in the past. Worcester County is the banner 

 county in the State, and has sometimes been almost the ban- 

 ner county in the country in the value of its agricultural 

 products. It stands in the row of the first in agricultural 

 production. Its farmers are as intelligent as the farmers in 

 any county in the United States, as are the farmers in the 

 city of Worcester ; for while, as the mayor has truly said, it 

 is a manufacturing city, there is, I think, only one munici- 

 pality in the State of Massachusetts whose agricultural prod- 

 ucts are of greater value than those of the city of Worcester. 

 As the mayor has well said, it is fortunately located over a 

 large territory, so that its inhabitants who choose to follow 



