216 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



community in which they have been held. They are a means 

 of bringing out new methods and theories for discussion, 

 and of bringing face to face agricultural teachers, and those 

 who are pleased to be their pupils, if for only a day. They 

 are a means of bringing us face to face with our favorite agri- 

 cultural writers, those whom we have followed perhaps for 

 years in the weekly papers, and often wished we could see 

 them and hear from their own lips their words of wisdom. 

 We have all enjoyed the pen work of such men as Cheever, 

 Hoard, Bailey, Roberts, Twitchell, Gould, Collingwood and 

 many others. Has it not been like meeting an old friend 

 when we are permitted for the first time to see them before 

 us on the lecture platform ? The institutes have given us the 

 opportunity. 



My boyhood love for agriculture was intensified by the 

 writings of the first-mentioned in the " New England 

 Farmer," and when I was in position to put his teaching 

 into practice, I found pleasure and profit in his methods 

 of soiling cattle. Was it any wonder, then, that my first 

 meeting with him at an institute was a pleasure to me? 



Then at the institutes the farmer, especially the young 

 man, gets in the habit of questioning the speakers, and after 

 a little he finds himself taking part in the discussions, and 

 the commencement made here leads to a future ability as 

 a speech-maker. I remember my first question asked at an 

 institute, with fear and trembling, and how the presiding 

 officer, the venerable Benjamin P. Ware, held me by his 

 peculiar ability as a chairman and his method of drawing one 

 out, until I had made quite a little speech. He did me good, 

 as he has scores of others in a similar way. 



Arranging for Institute Meetings. 



Although the number fixed by the l)y-law of the Board of 

 Agriculture is three meetings a year, this is no reason why 

 a society should limit thorn to this number, for twice this or 

 more can be held to a ])rofit by many societies. Still, there 

 is a possible danger of overdoing even the institute work in 

 some sections, and each society can besrt judge the number to 

 be held to advantage. 



