24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



There are forty-six of these reports, which in themselves 

 make an agricultural library. There is not a single line of 

 the whole series but what will interest some farmer and 

 give him something for his special line of agriculture. 



I have thus detailed one branch of the work of this old 

 Board. If I were to take your time, I could detail other 

 branches of it in which they have succeeded, but this is not 

 the time or place for anything of that sort. The services 

 of the members of the Board are gratuitous. No member 

 of the Board has a salary except the secretary, and he is 

 obliged to spend his whole time in the work, and thus has 

 no other means of earning a livelihood. 



This is the fourth time that this Board has held its public 

 winter meeting in the city of Worcester. The meetings 

 have been held in the different counties of the State, four 

 having been held in Hampden County, three in Franklin, 

 three in Essex, five in Middlesex, four in Hampshire, four 

 in Berkshire, two in Bristol, two in Plymouth, one in Suf- 

 folk and ten in Worcester, including this meeting. This 

 shows the appreciation the Board has of the county of 

 Worcester and the city of Worcester. 



The city of Worcester, as the mayor has told us, is an 

 important part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

 While it is the second city in the State in population, it 

 stands first in agricultural products. Its milk, market-gar- 

 den products and fruits, produced entirely for the home 

 market, make Worcester the banner city for agriculture ; 

 while its diversified manufactures give employment to the 

 thousands who consume these products of the farms and gar- 

 dens within its limits. This makes the city of Worcester a 

 typical place to illustrate the agriculture of New England 

 to the rest of the country. 



Fortunate are the farmers who live in this queen city of 

 the old Bay State. The Board of Agriculture is happy to 

 meet here and enjoy the hospitality of the city, the agricult- 

 ural society, the horticultural society, the grange and the 

 individual farmers of the county. 



First Vice-President Sessions in the chair. 



The Chairman. The next on the programme is an ad- 

 dress of welcome on behalf of the Worcester Agricultural 



