PUBIilC WlNTEK MEETIIS^G OF THE BOAKD, 



AT TAUNTOX. 



The annual public winter meeting of the Board was held in 

 Odd Fellows Hall, Taunton, beginning Tuesday, December 

 7, and continuing through the two following days. The 

 weather was mild, with light rain and snow the first two days. 

 The attendance at the sessions was unusually large and the 

 meeting was in all ways a successful one. 



The first session was called to order by Secretary Sessions, 

 who said : — 



The hour has arrived when the meeting should come to 

 order. Gentlemen of the Board, you are each aware that 

 our venerable and beloved first vice-president is detained from 

 us by illness and weakness. I have been informed by our 

 second vice-president, Mr. Wood, that at his request Mr. 

 N. W. Shaw of North Raynham will preside at this session 

 of the meeting. 



The Chairman. Gentlemen of the Board : I am glad to 

 see so many present at the opening of this meeting, not only 

 those older members with whom I have been so pleasantly 

 associated for the past few years, but also those who are just 

 taking their places on the Board. You all have come here, 

 no doubt,- feeling the responsibility of the situation, that there 

 is a large amount of work for you to do, and that it is of the 

 utmost importance that it be done faithfully and well. When 

 I look back on the past and recall to mind the men who 

 formed this Board of Agriculture, their earnest and tri- 

 umphant work, — such men as Marshall P. Wilder, Albert 

 Fearing, Professor Agassiz, John B. Moore and others equally 

 prominent ; when I call to mind that worker for your Board 

 for nearly all his active life as secretary, Charles L. Flint, and 

 he who immediately succeeded him, the enthusiastic and ener- 

 getic worker, John E. Russell, and not forgetting that worker 

 for the Board, our venerable and honorable first vice-presi- 



