far from railroad in winter, and how much it must cost to transfer our produce and our wants. With all these odds against us, it is a matter of surprise that our population has maintained its numbers to such an extent. You may desire to know how, with all these disadvantages, we have got on so well as we have.

My first explanation is, in our resolution. I can speak without liability to the charge of egotism,-as I am of comparatively recent residence,-when I say that our farmers, seeing the difficulty before them, determined to succeed; and so they have. They have had no spare capital to expend in show, and no fancy farms to excite an unhealthy emulation, and so they have, each one for himself, gone ahead with industry and economy. Another reason for success may be found in the peculiar adaptation which this section of the State has for agricultural purposes. Our soil may be considered the best, except the alluvial-as found in the Connecticut Valley-consisting of clay loam. The sand and loam it contains, give it porosity and heat, and the clay gives it an absorbing and retaining power; making it (except the alluvial) the best which nature has bestowed, for raising spring grains, market gardening, or fruits; and what is of more importance, a soil in which grasses, under favorable atmospheric influence, grow through the whole season, when they once start in the spring.

Geographically, you have met on this occasion in the heart of the Commonwealth. The people believe (and I doubt not the accuracy of their conception) that the brains of the State tend to the cities, and a large part of its activities, its arms and legs, to the manufacturing and mechanical centres. But we must remember that out of the heart are the many springs of action; it is the producing power from whence, and on which depend the activity of brain and limb; and it is for the brain to infuse into the functions of the heart, so that this part shall be, as well as the thronged cities, dominated and controlled by its intelligent action. The farmer needs all the wisdom he can get from the geologist, the chemist, the mineralogist, the botanist, the zoologist and mechanic, with the financial sagacity of the successful business man.

It was our privilege a few weeks since to welcome to our

.

doors the secretary of the board of education and his efficient corps of able professors, with a large attendance of teachers, met together as they did for a four days' instruction in the duties and labors of practical teachers. They entered at once with spirit and zest into all the plans and purposes that were presented for their improvement and future usefulness. And when they left, they had the consciousness of having all contributed their share to the general good, and had received a double portion for all their time and attention; and they also had the benediction of this whole community, from every household where each had been a welcome guest, and from every heart and soul that had been expanded with higher and clearer conceptions of intellectual and educational improve

ment.

Happy results always follow well-directed efforts. If it had been your privilege, in one or two weeks after this meeting, to have visited any of the schools in this vicinity, you would have found the seed that had been sown in this hall springing up and starting into life. It mattered not whether it was in the primary or high school, or away yonder in the white school-house on the hill-side, the brown house at the forks of the road, or the old red one by the woods, the indelible impress of Professors Dickinson and Walton, Munroe and Mason, had been made; the seed had been sown, and as true as nature to herself, it breaks its encasement, shoots into active life and being, and bears fruit.

But you, gentlemen, may ask why I break into another department of our state economy? It is simply because it is the best and nearest at hand of any illustration I can give you for your encouragement at this meeting. The channel through which so much has come in one department can be equally successful in ours for the general good.

We invite and welcome you here for your good and the community you represent, as well as for our special benefit; the communication of facts and information must be reciprocal. We do not welcome you here simply to the rich entertainment provided for in the rich course of lectures. Our distinguished professors are not to bear all the burden of this labor, and it is not for them to reap the harvest; their granaries are running over now,

Then, gentlemen, we welcome you all to a part in these discussions; to this fraternal gathering; to this rare oppornity for a more extensive acquaintance with the agriculturists of the State. Be free with each other; make yourselves at home; gather what facts you can for your intelligent action in the future, and scatter them from Franklin to Middlesex, from Berkshire to Essex; from the Hoosac Mountains to the islands on the coast.

But I must not extend these remarks; the importance of the subject which is soon to come before you, and the brief time for its discussion forbid it. But, lest these brief words of minc,-appointed as I have been, as one of your number to hold out the hand of welcome greeting,—lest these should be inadequate to convey to you the feelings of this whole community, I am happy to be able to invite your attention to a member of the committee of arrangements on the part of the citizens of Barre,-Dr. Allen,-a physician by profession, a farmer by choice. In the hour of our country's greatest need, he emulated his profession in the camp and hospital, and now he labors with ardent enthusiasm in his country's greatest industry.

ADDRESS OF DR. CHARLES G. ALLEN.

Gentlemen of the Board of Agriculture:-I hope you will not infer from the very formal manner in which my friend has introduced me, that I am to detain you with any set speech. My associates, members of the committee appointed by the town of Barre, to co-operate with my friend, Mr. Root, in making arrangements for your comfort and pleasure during the sessions of the Board, have delegated to me the very pleasant duty of welcoming you in behalf of the citizens of Barre. We are glad to meet you here to-day, and I assure you that as citizens and farmers, we appreciate the efforts you have made to come into our midst, and we hope that we may make your stay here so pleasant, that at some future time, when the rails shall have been laid and the iron. horse can bring you, we may meet you here again.

But my duty is to say to our friends from the adjoining towns, and to any strangers who may have come among us

for the first time, that the citizens of Barre bid them a hearty welcome; that we hope they will make our homes their homes while they may remain with us; that we wish you to come among us and make our acquaintance, and we will make all the efforts we can to make your acquaintance. And, lest some might be overlooked in the great interest we have in your discussions, we have appointed a sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. A. H. Holland, J. H. Goodrich, J. F. Snow and James F. Davis, whose duty it will be to find accommodations for any one who may not have them, and I hope that any gentlemen so situated will feel at liberty to give their names to the members of this committee, and we shall take great pleasure in welcoming you to our homes.

But, as has been said by the chairman, you have come here for another purpose than to listen to us; and I will not detain you longer, except to repeat that we welcome you here very heartily, and we hope especially that the friends from the adjoining towns will come to our homes; that they will not go away until the session is closed. We want you to stay with us night and day; not come to-day and go home at night, and, perhaps, not come to-morrow. We have taken special pains to circulate notices of this meeting in the adjoining towns, and we wish our friends to come here and remain with us until the final adjournment of the Board.

The chairman then introduced the Hon. Harris Lewis, of Herkimer County, New York, who was received with hearty applause, and proceeded to address the convention, on the subject announced in the programme.

DAIRY HUSBANDRY.

BY HON. HARRIS LEWIS.

To the members of the State Board of Agriculture of this Commonwealth, and the ladies and gentlemen present, I will tender, at this time, my thanks for the cordial greeting extended to me on my appearance. I come here before you under many disadvantages; first, being a working farmer, a dairyman who has milked his seven cows in the morning up to yesterday, and labored in the field every day in prepar

ing for the winter, I have been unable to make that preparation which I should have been glad to have made, to meet so intelligent a body of men and women as I now see before me. I labor, also, under the disadvantage of having, in your able Secretary, a partial friend, who has overrated my ability to instruct or to interest you. I also labor under the disadvantage of being "the light of Herkimer County." If I am "the light of Herkimer County," surely there must be a good deal of darkness in Herkimer. But, my friends, with the hearty welcome which has been given me, I am glad to clasp hands with you, not "across the bloody chasm," but across the intervening space between Barre and Herkimer.

I feel somewhat at home with you, and I hope your chairman will not prove a Root out of dry ground. I also hope that many young Roots will spring up from the original Root, which shall replace him in your estimation, when he is gone.

Six weeks ago, if any man had said that we were more dependent upon the horse than we were upon our fellow-man to move the wheels of this commercial world, he would have been pronounced an idiot; but that fact has been established within six weeks. It is self-evident to every man here. Yet we have been able to substitute for the horse, man-power to some extent. I have seen men dragging express-wagons in the streets of Utica, the city nearest my home. I have seen a man on a mail-route, twenty-four miles in length, carrying the mail-bag on his back. I have seen the slow, yet strong and patient ox, substituted in the place of the horse, and the untiring steam-power brought to fill his place. Yet with all these helps we have come to the conclusion that we have been more dependent upon the horse than we were aware of. Now, gentlemen, should another like epidemic strike the dairy cow, and destroy her usefulness, only for a time, how would it affect us? What should we bring forward to take her place? We are dependent upon her for milk, for butter, for cheese, and directly or indirectly, for veal, for beef, for liver. What other animal, I say, could we bring in, unless it be the goat, to fill her place? Well, if the cow holds so important a position in our domestic arrangements, it will be well for us, on this occasion, to give her a passing