No. 4.] ADDRESS OF VICE-PRESIDENT WOOD. 21 



locality in which the meeting is to be held, and secure experts 

 to make addresses upon the different subjects, after which an 

 opportunity is given all persons in the audience to ask cpies- 

 tions of the speaker or to enter into the discussion of the 

 subject being considered. The same course has been pur- 

 sued in the preparation for this meeting. This committee, 

 together with the secretary, have arranged such subjects as 

 were considered to 1)e of the most local importance. They 

 have also secured speakers of reputation to open the dis- 

 cussions and treat upon the different subjects, and then an 

 opportunity will be given for any persons in the audience to 

 ask any questions or to discuss the questions under con- 

 sideration. 



The Bristol County Agricultural Society is one of the orig- 

 inal fifteen that organized the State Board of Agriculture, 

 which number has increased, as our poet told us this morn- 

 ing, to thirty-five at the present time. This organization was 

 formed in 1852, and during the forty-six years that have 

 intervened this society has had but six delegates upon the 

 Board : J. H. W. Page of New Bedford, Nathan Durfee of 

 Fall River, Samuel L. Crocker and Edmund H. Bennett of 

 Taunton, Avery P. Slade of Somerset, and your present dele- 

 gate, N. W. Shaw of North Raynham. These men have all 

 been interested in the agriculture of the State and have done 

 valuable service upon the Board. But it seems to me that I 

 may be permitted without any disparagement to the others 

 to mention the services of Mr. Slade. For twenty-one years 

 he represented this society on the Board of Agriculture, and 

 his long practical experience, united with sound judgment 

 and his long, continuous service, enabled him to render in- 

 valuable aid to the Board. 



The Board, when it accepted the invitation of this society 

 to meet at Taunton this year, was aware that it was going to 

 a society whose interest as shown at the annual fair (it having 

 the largest attendance of any county society in the State) 

 would warrant good meetings, well attended. We hope these 

 meetings may prove not only a pleasure but that they may 

 be profitable and interesting to the members of the Board, to 

 the members of the Bristol County Agricultural Society and 

 to the public generally. 



