160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



a social wa}^ and our rooms are filled, and e\^eryJ)odj has a 

 good time. 



On these walls are pictures of many distinguished per- 

 sons. One man in the rear is a man by the name of Paine. 

 The Paines were one of the older families of the town. 

 The grandfather of this Paine, who was our treasurer for 

 many years and as long as he lived, had a mansion on Lincoln 

 Street. 



The Chair. I have the pleasure of introducing Burton 

 W. Potter, the retiring president of the Worcester Agricul- 

 tural Society. 



REMARKS OF BURTON W. POTTER, Esq. 



Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : We heard this after- 

 noon a lecture on a campaign for rural progress, and I was 

 very nmcli interested in the subject, and what little I have 

 to say I desire to say in reference to that. When we talk 

 about rural improvements, almost every one thinks it is an 

 academic or scientific question, and not a practical one ; 

 but it seems to me the relation of civic with rural life is a 

 very big vsubject, and this question of institutional against 

 natural life is also a big subject ; and when we solve those 

 questions, we settle a good many of the unsolved problems 

 of society. 



I attended a meeting the other night, >vhere the statement 

 was made that 31> per cent of the taxation of Worcester 

 County was paid for the support of criminals and the courts 

 in handling them, and that the chief source of this expendi- 

 ture was in the streets, the crowded streets, of our cities ; 

 that that was where the juvenile offenders come from, where 

 the drunkards come from, where the depraved come from in 

 all other departments of society. Now, if you could al)olish 

 the slums, and arrange things in some way so as to get rid 

 of these crowded tenement settlements and l)ring people out 

 into the suburl)s of the city or into the country, you would 

 eliminate the criminals, or a large number of them, from 

 society, and the conununitj^ would not be called upon to 

 pay such a large expenditure for their support. 



A prosperous agricultural people are essential for the 



