PUBLIC WINTER MEETING OF THE BOARD, 

 AT SPRINGFIELD. 



The annual public winter meeting of the State Board of 

 Agriculture was held at Grand Army Hall, Springfield, on 

 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, December 4, 5 and 6. 

 The first two days were fair and cold ; the third day was 

 rainy. The attendance, though not unusually large, was 

 good, and the meeting was looked upon as a decided success. 



The meeting was called to order at 10 a.:m. by Secretary 

 Ellsworth, who introduced First Vice-President Sessions as 

 the presiding officer for the morning session. 



Prayer was offered by Bishop A. H. Vinton of Springfield. 



The Chair introduced President Bowman of the Springfield 

 Board of Trade, who delivered the address of welcome. 



ADDEESS OF WELCOME, BY PRESIDENT HENRY 

 H. BOWMAN. 



Mr. Chairman, members of the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture, and gentlemen : When I was a boy I lived in Sunder- 

 land, in Franklin County, and began to see what has since 

 become a pathetic sight throughout New England, — the 

 abandonment of many farms upon the hills, because the boys 

 wanted to go to the cities, and the father and grandfather 

 grew old and })assed away. It seemed almost impossible 

 then for any young and active, vigorous and ambitious man 

 to wrest anything like a living from the rugged hills of New 

 England. We are seeing to-day, I think, the reverse of that 

 experience. All of us who know anything of rural New 

 England are more or less familiar with the new methods that 

 are being introduced, in the scientific way in which farming, 

 and sheep raising, and fruit growing, and the other Indus- 



