45 



science of agriculture Without this actual practice there was no 

 such thing as intelligent fanning. His students had the scientific 

 principles thoroughly instilled into them by practice and study 

 combined. In farming, as in other things, they must begin at first 

 principles and get the elements of it thoroughly grounded, and 

 then progress can be made. When this method is generally pur- 

 sued agriculture will take a place as a profession worthy of respect. 

 It needed men of brains to bring it up to its proper position. Give 

 him a man of brains, he said, and such an one Avould go right, 

 whether he had mone\^ or friends to back him or not. 



Mr. George M. Baker, President of the Marshfield Agricultural 

 Society, was next introduced. He briett}^ expressed his gratifica- 

 tion at the character of the exhibition, which, though it was the 

 twenty-fifth held by the Society, yet showed none of the deficien- 

 cies of age, but rather evidences of vast improvement since its 

 earlier days. The specimens of fruit he thought were wonderful, 

 and the Society that could make such a display must surely have 

 among its supporters the presence of that venerable gentleman 

 whose name was beloved and venerated wherever luscious fruits 

 were cultivated and their excellence appreciated. He closed by 

 expressing the hope that the Society would be favored in the future 

 with as genial skies as then smiled above them. 



The next speaker was Mr. Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the 

 State Board of Agriculture. He said he had attended many of 

 the annual shows of the Norfolk Societ}'', and was with them in 

 1849 when that grand galaxy was present to which Col. Wilder 

 had referred. He had also attended many exhibitions during the 

 present season, and was happ}- to say that this was the crowning 

 glory of them all. (Applause.) He was pleased at the condition 

 of the stock on the ground. When he came into office 3'ears 

 ago there was scarcely any blooded stock in the State ; now it was 

 abundant in nearly every part of the Commonwealth. He also 

 took pleasure in visiting the halls, where the display of apples, 

 pears and vegetables he said was the most magnificent he had seen 

 in any County exhibition. The progress in the culture of fruits, 

 he said, was one of the marvels of the present age. The speaker 

 then referred to the first efforts at fruit raising in Massachusetts 

 by Governois Winthrop and Endicott and other farmers during 

 the latter part of the seventeenth century. The fruit then raised 

 was apples exchisively, which were all seedlings and of an inferior 

 quality, and were raised only for cider. Even down to the end of 

 the first quarter of the present century little was done with ai)ples, 

 except to make cider and vinegar with them. I>ut fast progress 

 has been made since that time, and now more than fifty millions of 

 dollars is the annual product of the fruit of this country. Before 

 he sat down, however, he wished to express a little pride he felt in 

 one addition of their show, and this was in respect to its dahlias. 

 In 1843, while travelling over the Alps in Switzerland he came to 



