prietor dies there is nobody that is able to carry it on or buy it, and it stands vacant and unoccupied, without being any particular good to the community in which it is placed.

I also wish to say one thing more, and that is, in regard to the people in the country themselves; they should make it a point to improve their old homesteads, and make them as beautiful and attractive as possible. The great fault of the country people is that a great many of them think, when they undertake to make any improvement, that they must citify their rural home. They have seen granolithic and asphalt sidewalks in the city; therefore they must have granolithic and asphalt sidewalks. They have seen castiron doors or lamps or some other such thing in some city place; therefore they think they must have that thing there; and they must have an iron kettle with some plants in it, and all sorts of things of that kind, to try and make their country home look like a city home. That isn't what you want; you want to make your country home look rural; make it plain, make it simple, and then you have something attractive. When we are riding through the country and reach a home that shows good taste, shows improvement, you at once say, "They must be very intelligent and nice people that live here," and you would like to become acquainted with them. And I say that this can be done without any great expenditure of money. All that they need to do is to have green grass and trees, and they are cheap. You don't want an Italian garden in your front lawn. You simply want to bring the glories of the field and of the woods around your doors, and then you have a rural estate, in which you can live in enjoyment, and which is attractive to every eye of good taste.

The CHAIR. I have the pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, of introducing Pres. Harry W. Goddard of the Board of Trade of this city.

REMARKS OF MR. HARRY W. GODDARD.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: The Board of Trade of the city is composed of farmers, mechanics, merchants and manufacturers, and any one else in the city who believes in the upbuilding and the progress of Worcester. We are sometimes asked what good the Board of Trade does, and it is rather a hard question to answer. We have no exhibitions such as President Hadwen described, or such as the Agricultural Society have had, — although some one once said, jokingly, "I think we exhibit ourselves at our banquet." The farmers of the Board of Trade are entitled to just as much consideration at the hands of the Board as any member. In their way they are of just as much importance as the merchants or the manufacturers of the city, and if there is anything that the Board of Trade can do at any time to assist them, we want them to feel free to call upon the Board. The rooms are open every working day in the year, with officers in attendance, to render assistance in the matter of information or help in a business way.

The CHAIR. I now have the pleasure of introducing President Butterfield of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.

REMARKS OF PRES. KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I am very glad to be at this meeting. I was brought up in Michigan, which has been called, as you may know, the western Massachusetts. I don't know whether you people in Massachusetts are proud of that title for Michigan, or not; we in Michigan are not ashamed of it for ourselves. I speak of this because I was brought up to think, from what I had heard my father say and from some early reading that I did on agricultural lines, that Massachusetts in the early days, through its Board of Agriculture and through its Horticultural Society, was not only a pioneer but a leader in developing things agricultural. The records show that away back in the early years of agricultural development Massachusetts men and

Massachusetts institutions not only brought forth ideas, but put them into practice for the benefit of the rural people. And so I feel that I am coming to historic ground from a standpoint of agriculture.

I think that the thought that has been with me most this evening has been the interest that seems to be shown by the citizens of Worcester County. In most cities that I am acquainted with the citizens are inclined to think of agriculture as a thing apart from their own interests. Apparently the citizens of Worcester have seen that agriculture is "related to both of us," not only those interested in the farm and interested in the development of agriculture, but also those who live in the cities, and who can see that the development of the farming community and the agricultural industry are vital to the prosperity of the city. I hope that this impression that has come to me of the unity of interests between the people of the city and the people of the country in Worcester County is a fact. I am impressed with this beautiful hall, a monument to a great society. I have been impressed with the splendid audience gathered under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture; and it seems to me that these things that I have merely suggested are not only expressions of a successful agriculture in this portion of the Commonwealth, but that they augur a greater development for the future.

The CHAIR. This concludes the literary exercises of the evening.

A collation was then served in the society's dining hall, after which the remainder of the evening was passed in social enjoyment. Instrumental music was furnished during the evening.

THIRD DAY.

The meeting was called to order at 10 A.M. by Secretary Ellsworth, who introduced Mr. Walter D. Ross of Worcester as the presiding officer.

The CHAIR. It is certainly very pleasant for me, representing the Worcester Agricultural Society, that these meet

ings the past two days have been so successful, not only in quality of addresses but in the numbers we have had and in the interest that has been taken. I feel very well pleased that the invitation was accepted, and that the Board decided to hold these meetings here in Worcester instead of in some other place.

The question which we have to discuss this forenoon is certainly an interesting one, and I have the pleasure of introducing to you Dr. Chas. D. Woods, director of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, who will speak on the subject of Nitrogen in relation to soil fertility."

"

NITROGEN IN RELATION TO SOIL FERTILITY.

BY DR. CHAS. D. WOODS, ORONO, ME.

We sometimes think of the practical farmer as a very conservative man, and yet it is only a generation since Stockbridge, Johnson, Goessmann, Atwater and others began to write and teach some of the then very new things that foreign, and particularly German, scientific men were finding out relative to the chemistry of plant nutrition. Many of the founders of the agricultural colleges are still living, and it is only thirty years since the first agricultural experiment station in America began its work. And what a change has been wrought in farm practice and theory!

In the progress which has been made in all these years, the farmer has become so familiar with the chemistry of fertilizers and cattle foods, the demands of plants and the feeding standards for animals, that it has come about that many are using this chemical knowledge as though it were exact, and as though plant growing and cattle feeding were largely questions of arithmetic. For several years research has been going on along other, and in some ways more impor tant, lines than chemistry; with the result that to-day, in a way, the farmer in his practice and his reasonings is as far separated from the advances of science as he was years ago, when the scientific men who first did so much for the agriculture of New England were advancing the chemical theories. It is of course for such purposes that you have established the agricultural experiment stations, and you demand that they shall constantly be working out into the new and unknown; blazing trails which shall later become highways for the followers of practical agriculture. I am