20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



not excelled anywhere in the United States and equalled in 

 very few places. 



Agriculture in New England is not dead. It never will 

 sink out of sight, however much there may be sent on by 

 the carload from the West. There never will come a time 

 when this interest in New England will drop out from 

 among the important industries in this part of the country ; 

 and, contrary to the theory of some, there never will come 

 a time when old New England will not be prominent in this 

 industry. Notwithstanding all the advantages of the West 

 in certain directions, they never can take the glory of New 

 England away from the locality made historic and made 

 successful by the intelligence and enterprise that will con- 

 tinue to abide here and will compare favorably with that 

 which can be found or produced or cultivated in any other 

 part of the United States, Let us have faith in New Eng- 

 land ; faith in Massachusetts ; faith in the institutions which 

 have been planted here and nourished by the greatest in- 

 telligence of the race, giving to each and all the encourage- 

 ment due to the honest effort of the people of good old New 

 England, and especially our own Bay State ; and chief, of 

 course, among all the cities of the State and chief among all 

 the counties of the State we must be especially patriotic to 

 the city of Worcester and to the county of Worcester, 

 which has stood forth at all times prominent in the history 

 of the State, and worthy of the attention of the thinking 

 peojile that inhabit this part of the greatest country on the 

 face of the earth. 



The Secretary. In response to the inspiring address by 

 the mayor of Worcester, we will listen to Hon. Wm. R. 

 Sessions of Springfield, first vice-president of the Board, 

 who will act as presiding officer at this meeting. 



Mr. Sessions. It is my pleasant duty to respond to this 

 address of welcome in behalf of the Board of Agriculture, 

 with which I have been connected for the last twenty years 

 and with which I am still identified. The mayor spoke of 

 his experience as a milk peddler in the city of Worcester, 

 and it Ijrought to my mind a fact which a friend related to 

 me. Some years ago, perhaps about the time when the 

 mayor was driving a milk cart, this man was supplying milk 



