While we are unable to encourage our people by statistics of unusual prosperity, we must put on record our unqualified belief that agriculture, carried on with energy, industry, enterprise and good judgment, will, in the long run, be as successful in Massachusetts as in any other part of the Union. Some of the counties in our State produce nearly or quite as large an aggregate value of agricultural products as any county in the country, while the wonderful production of manufactured articles by these same counties makes us proud of our State and people. The capacity of our State for increase in agricultural products is enormous. We have besides the woodland 1,569,667 acres of uncultivated land. The cultivated land, 939,260 acres, which includes the mowing lands, according to the census of 1885, produced $47,756,033 worth of agricultural products. The average product per acre of the cultivated land was only about $50, while we have one town in the State that produced $218 worth of agricultural products per cultivated acre. Our uncultivated acres are capable of producing good returns if put to proper uses. We believe that our State would be more powerful and better able to withstand commercial depression, political upheaval or class dissatisfaction, with a large and prosperous rural population, and that the greatest good to the greatest number in our State will lead our Legislature to foster and encourage the agriculture of the State. Mindful of past liberality, the farmers of the State are sanguine that those of other callings in this our grand old Commonwealth, will still remember to do justice to those of us engaged in the foundation industry, BOSTON, February, 1889. WILLIAM R. SESSIONS, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. PUBLIC MEETING OF THE BOARD AT EASTHAMPTON. The Country Meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture was held in the Town Hall at Easthampton, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 4, 5 and 6, 1888. Hon. George B. Loring presided, and called the meeting to order, after which the Rev. Mr. Colton offered prayer. The Rev. Dr. S. T. Seelye of Easthampton then delivered the opening address, as follows: OPENING ADDRESS. BY 8. T. SEELYE, D.D., OF EASTHAMPTON. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the State Board of Agriculture. The pleasant duty has been assigned me of extending to you a most cordial welcome, in behalf of the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Agricultural Society, the Farmers' Club, and the citizens of Easthampton. We are glad to see you. We deem it no small honor to be visited by this Board of representative men, who have made the great interests of agriculture the study and the business of their lives. We highly appreciate the opportunity thus afforded us of adding to our scanty stores by sharing the rich treasures which you have gathered by years of careful investigation and unremitting toil. We shall listen with earnest attention to your words of wisdom, and we are sure that our mental horizon will be broadened and our aspirations will be uplifted by your coming. But the rich blessing which you are to give us compels us to ask, What can we do for you? We would not only receive, we would also give. Yet, in the things where you are so rich, we are poor indeed. We could only repay you in copper, where you give us gold. We have no fancy farms, we originate no new methods of tillage, we raise very little long-pedigree stock. This, however, means no disparagement to our farmers. In all those noble qualities which give dignity and worth to manhood, they stand in the front rank. They are intelligent, industrious, upright, loyal, true men-true as steel. In spite of the thin, leachy soil, whose craving for fertilizers can never be appeased, these farmers are forehanded, live in good homes, and give a good education to their children; and this is a sufficient proof of their perseverance and skill. But in all agricultural matters we can teach you nothing we can only sit at your feet. Is there nothing, then, that we can do for you? In this valley of the Connecticut we could show you many a scene of beauty, which it would immortalize an artist to portray upon the canvas. From the summit of Tom or Holyoke you could look down upon a landscape which for quiet, enchanting loveliness is without a rival. It does not, however, satisfy us merely to show you this natural scenery, beautiful and charming as it is; for we have something better, and we wish to give you the very best. Here in Easthampton we can give you the clearest possible proof of the mighty and beneficent power of an earnest, unselfish life; for here we can see what it has wrought, and we can feel its constant and blessed influence upon ourselves. These fine churches, these great factories, this richly endowed seminary, this memorial hall and the public library, are the visible achievements of such a life; while the generous impulse which makes the heart warm with sympathy and opens the hand to help the needy, and the spirit which makes us loyal to town and State and country, are the unseen proofs of its abiding presence. To make this perfectly clear, let me give you the briefest possible sketch of the character and work of two men who have blessed this town beyond measure, by living not for themselves but for the world. Samuel Williston showed what was to be the purpose of his life, when in early youth he devoted himself to the work of the ministry. Though he was turned aside from his chosen profession, that purpose to use all his powers for the good of the world was never changed. Nature was to him |