PUBLIC WlNTEli MEETING OF THE BOARD, 



AT NORTHAMPTON. 



The annual public winter meeting of the Board, for lec- 

 tures and discnssions, was held at Carnegie Hall, Northamp- 

 ton, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, December C, 7 

 and 8. The attendance was good, being above the average 

 for all sessions and especially good on the second day, the 

 lectures interesting and instructive, and the discussions well 

 sustained and valuable. 



The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m.^ on Tuesday, 

 by Secretary Ellsworth. Second Vice-President Avery pre- 

 sided, and introduced His Honor Calvin Coolidge, mayor of 

 ^Northampton, who delivered the address of welcome. 



ADDEESS OF \YELCOME, BY HIS HOINOR MAYOR 

 CALVIN COOLIDGE. 

 We are having an election here today and I assure you 

 that it is a relief to leave for a few minutes and extend to 

 your Board a most hearty welcome to our city. Northamp- 

 ton is known throughout the L^nited States as an educational 

 center, and for that reason it is the more fitting that you 

 should meet here, as agriculture is becoming each year more 

 and more the pursuit of the educated man. Also, we have 

 recently started a school here which is devoted to the teach- 

 ing of agriculture to our young men and women. Smith's 

 Agricultural School and the Northampton School of Indus- 

 tries. This school is, I believe, destined to prove of great 

 benefit to this section in agricultural and domestic lines. We 

 are, moreover, in the heart of a farming district, and depend- 

 ent upon the products of the soil for our prosperity. To the 

 north and east lie the meadows of the Connecticut valley, 

 the most fertile section in the Commonwealth; great land 

 for raising tobacco, onions and corn, — land that has been 



