236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



REPORT OP DELEGATES TO THE FAEMERS' NATIONAL 



CONGRESS. 



Colorado Springs, Col., Aug. 21-31, 1900. 



Hon. J. W. Stockwell, Secretary Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



Sir : — The delegates from Massachusetts in attendance 

 were John G. Avery, H. P. Rowland and A. F. Jones of 

 Spencer, Ethan Brooks of West Springfield, George M. 

 Whitaker and Ella A. Dolliver of Boston, and R. G. F. 

 Candage and Sallie C. Candas^e of Brookline. 



The Congress met in the auditorium of the high school 

 building, Colorado Springs, Aug. 21, 1900, at 10 o'clock 

 A.M., and was called to order by the president, R. G. F. 

 Candage of Massachusetts. In all there were some five hun- 

 dred and fifty delegates and associates present. 



Rev. Wm. H. Fish of All Souls Church, formerly of Ded- 

 ham, Mass., opened the Congress with prayer. 



Mr. Gilbert McClurg, secretary of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, Colorado Springs, welcomed the Congress on behalf 

 of that organization. Mayor J. S. Robinson of Colorado 

 Springs followed with an address of welcome of a cordial 

 character, in which he said : — 



The cordiality of your welcome is increased by the fact 

 that most of us claim a real or honorary membership in the 

 great fraternity you represent. Most of us were fortunate 

 enough to have had a rural nativity, and by many ties are still 

 rooted to the soil ; and your presence here to-day recalls the 

 past, and we sense the fragrance of clover and apple blossoms, 

 hear again the low of cows, the bleat of lambs, the minstrelsy 

 of woods and fields and the rustle of bladed corn stirred by 

 the breezes of golden autumn. 



It is a fact, and one of vital significance to our country, 

 that the farms are the manufactories of the best product of 

 American brain and brawn, of American character and man- 

 hood. Three-fourths of the youths in our higher schools of 



