154 



Mr. B. P. Ware said he was induced to try the raising^ 

 of sheep by the speaker, and he bought a hundred sheep, 

 but the experiment did not prove a success. Other speak- 

 ers were C. S. Emerton of Peabody, who keeps sheep, Mr. 

 Marsh of Danvers, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Whitcomb, after 

 which the meeting adjourned for dinner. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



In the afternoon the subject for discussion was "The 

 Laws of Competition as Affecting Massachusetts Farmers," 

 by Charles A. Mills, Esq., of Southborough. 



Mr. Mills' address was an enlargement of the idea that 

 the cheap and easy transportation have driven New Eng- 

 land farmers out of the old established methods of agricul- 

 ture, but the increased facilities, a growing population and 

 new demands upon the farmer, open avenues for a success- 

 ful business, and make his lot more desirable than thdt of 

 his forefathers. 



Competition, said the speaker, is the struggle to reach 

 something someone else is striving for. 



In farming the laws of competition are not as active as 

 in many other things, but just as sure. 



The early history of our farmers was a struggle for exis- 

 tance, but in the present advanced state of agricultural 

 methods and improved machinery, one man can do the 

 work that formerly required ten. The farmer now not 

 only raises an ample supply for home needs, but has 

 plenty to export. The increased facilities for transporta- 

 tion have reached such a point that the speaker had heard 

 it said, that a bushel of corn could be brought to the farmer 

 in New England, from the field in Illinois, for a smaller 

 sum than the cost of grinding. 



The New England farmer, with his increasing wants and 

 comforts in living, cannot compete in tliose staples of the 

 West, where land is fertile and cheap, and the primitive 

 modes of living as compared with the East. Again the 

 New England farmer is too easily diverted from the main 

 object of his calling by thinking of the by-products. Thus 



