The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-03-19
FAIRFIELD

.Farners Institute = Large Attendance
 Rev. 0iustead sa Zen. Patnam- ;. Farming for . Purpose Other Good
 Speakers.
 Something over 400 gentlemen and
 11adies from this town. Westport, Mil eford, Nichols, Canaan, Southport. and @other places, assembled yesterday at ethe GIeenfeld- Country, Club house to
 attend the seventh annual Farmers
 institute meeting. At Il o'clock in the morning MT. N. H. Sherwood. the pres
 idept. called. the meeting to order. He
 said 1t was a year within a day since theFneetfpE of the last institute, and !!the- game and one day too late for St. Patrick's. The first number on the prnX was a. picco1o solo, Startling | PollkA.~s by. MT. William S.. Fallon, maakaai perfor1nance While the people were assembling in the great hall of
 the club. house there was @ musical
 trio by MFs Simeon C. Bradley on the
 violin. MT. Fallon on thesDicco1o. and
 a pfaho accempaninent- This was fol-
 lowed by an address by Rev. E. H.
 Olmstead. the new pastor of the
 Greenfield Hill Congregational church.
 He said hes proposed to speak of a
 Connecticut farmer whom the nation
 has delighted tos~henor-4Gen. Israel
 RutAAm,- During the Revolutionary
 war he reached a rank next to that of
 Washington, and nine years from now
 the state and the nation will celebrate the 200&h anniversary of his birth. He
 bouEhtt a piece of land near Ponfret, from Gov. Belcher. and in two years
 had cleared off all his indebtedness. He introduced the best apple trees 1n- to the state. especially the Baldwin;
 and he set out great rows of shade
 trees by the road Side, some of which
 a n "a CpeT n Mr. 0mStead ssaid he would try to be fair in his estimate of the man. He had searched other sources of information. ] Let us : look at some of the incidents of his life. The current story of Putnam in Athe wolf's den was retold and dis
 many interior evidences of being a fake. It wasnot printed until 40 years after the occurrence is said to have happened. and was written by Tory was commissioned a Captain by the Assembly of Connecticut in the French sandEfndian wars. and one of his char 9acteIistics vas the great regard ne active at the Battle of Bunker Hill. l sanc. one of his exclamations was: For | Gods sake save Maj. Small. I love him as do my brother" He was kind to both friends and enemies. He spoke l of the battle of Tfconderoga where l Gen. Howe lost his life. It was on that field that Putnam gave the same attention to the enemies who had been swoIimded as he did. to his own men. i He was at the battle of Princeton, | where he, took a. Scotchman named McPhefSon. The 'Scotchman was as- ,tonished at the kindness of the Gen eral s-sdnd fniind it hard to believe he | was a Yankee. Many other incidents | of his kindness and humanity were related. It is told of him that he ,ne4er stopped to change his coat when | The heard Of the battle of Lexington. but left shis plough in the furrow and | 'stafted at once for the war. Gen. Gage admired the man so much that he efered him high position in the British army if he would desert the AmRr1can cause. He spurned the of fer He made his mistakes, said MT. | Olmstead. as all men do: But it is better to have swollen head than "a | shrunken brain, said MT. Olmstead. He | became a. member of the Congrega- tiona1 church in Brooklyn. Conn.,. and | died in 1790. aged 72 MT. Olmstead | remarked that. the then pastor of the | Greenfield Hill churcfI where he now breaches. Rev. Timothy Dwight. wrote | the epitaph which was inscribed upon the old dAheadstone and which has been copied upon the new monument raised | to his memory.
 The next address was by MT. R. N. | Penny, a resident of Greens Farms, who makes speciality of raising cauli- flower. He spoke upon Farming With a Purpose" He regarded it as an honor to talk anywhere on farming just plain farming. If I can do this to the advantage of others shall feel that I have done a little good for purpose. He said that dollars and cents are not all there is in farming; l if that is the only object one has he will make a failure of the business. A good farmer should make a good citi- zen. have g. good home. and a happy life at home. He considered Connecti- cut to be one of the best possibilities for specialized farming of any kind to be found in the Union. Anything that will grow on Long Island will grow better in Connecticut. MT. Penny came from a Long Island farm. He said he shad owned a Connecticut farm for three years and had learned a good deal in that time. Men in this state are doing stunts in growing vegetables, fruits, melons and every thing. Feats are being accomplished at Greens: Farms which five years ago thought; impossible. He alluded to the Meekers and the melons they raise: to L. P. Wakeman and the he produces which cannot be eQua1ied anywhere; to Mr. N-- H. Sher- wood.A and his successful greenhouse Work' to MT. Taylor who is doing fine work. and to MT. W. H. Burr, who is noing stunts in his hot house which { cannot De done on Long Island. He 1 said that potatoes outrank all other i
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