22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



it will, I trust, continue to prosper. Those to whom the 

 mayor referred as allowing their places to run down are 

 farmers in name only. They are farmers because they were 

 not enterprising enough to be anything else. Many and 

 many a farm in Massachusetts and in New England is oc- 

 cu])ied by some son of an enterprising farmer, who had the 

 least enterprise of any of the half-dozen boys who grew up 

 on the farm. The enterprising ones went out to the city 

 of Worcester, to Boston and to Lowell, and made a mark and 

 a name for themselves. The one who had no gimp to get 

 up and hoe his row was the one who stayed on the farm. 

 The decadence of Jsew England farms is more largely from 

 that cause than an}^ other. Many of the farms are occupied 

 by the least enterprising son of the farmer, because he had 

 the least enterprise. But where you find a farmer who loves 

 his work and respects his calling you will find thrift, pros- 

 perity and happiness. 



This Board which meets here to-day is an old Board ; it 

 is one of the oldest in the country. It was organized by act 

 of the Legislature in 1852, and since that time, almost fifty 

 years, it has been working for the advantage of agriculture. 

 It has seen, largely through its efforts, a wondrous change 

 in the agriculture of the State. If we were to compare the 

 agriculture of 1852 with that of to-day, we would find a 

 tremendous advance and improvement. 



The Board has always had among its members men of 

 the highest scientific attainments, of wide reputation, who 

 had the respect of the community ; men who were known 

 throughout the United States, men of whom we were proud ; 

 and also among them have been men who have been success- 

 ful and practical farmers ; men who have made a success of 

 the business of agriculture. These two classes have given 

 wise counsel to the farmers of Massachusetts, instruction 

 that has enabled them to succeed in business, and that has 

 caused an improvement in agriculture from the time of the 

 institution of this Board. I may mention a few of the men 

 who have been meml^ers of the Board and prominent in 

 this work: Charles L. Flint, Dr. Edward Hitchcock, Mar- 

 shall P. Wilder, Simon Brown, JTames S. Grinnell, Robert 

 C. Winthrop, Ephraim W. Bull, President Wm. S. Clark, 



