2 [Sekate 



on the public spirit and liberality of the friends of agriculture, and 

 they have not been disappointed in the result. 



The Committee do not deem it necessary to encumber their report 

 with the voluminous details of the premium list. 



The following analysis of this appropriation, will, it is hoped, sa- 

 tisfactorily indicate that the Society has not overlooked any of the 

 more important branches of agricultural labor, and that it has judi- 

 ciously and fairly distributed the funds which it derives from the pub- 

 lic treasury, as well as the contributions of individual liberality: 



The premiums upon farm stock, including horses, cattle, sheep, 



and swine, amounted to, $827 



Farm implements, 173 



Agricultural products, including butter, cheese, maple sugar, 



field crops, &c 315 



Silk and domestic manufactures, , 143 



Flowers, fruits, vegetables and horticultural implements,. . . . IIS 

 Premiums for essays — to artists for portraits of animals — plans 



of farm houses, &c. about . ^ 200 



The Committee held out inducements which drew to the exhibition 

 many articles not enumerated in the premium list, connected with 

 agricultural pursuits, well worthy the notice of the Society, and up- 

 on which a considerable fund was expended in discretionary premi- 

 ums. A large number of diplomas, and several gold and silver me- 

 dals, were likewise distributed. 



There is no branch of this subject to which the Committee look 

 with greater confidence for results, beneficial, extensive and enduring, 

 than to the essays upon agricultural subjects, solicited rather than 

 remunerated, by the premiums of the Society. In designating the 

 subjects of these essays, the Committee directed their first attention 

 to those points in which the numerous publications, scientific and ag- 

 ricultural, now before the public, seemed mainly deficient. It is not 

 a little surprising that the first pursuit of man, that occupation to 

 which he was destined by one of the earliest, and an irrevocable law 

 of his Maker, should have been the last to receive the illuminations 

 of science. Of the many causes which have conduced to this result, it 

 is not necessary that we should here speak, but we may be allowed to 

 express our gratification that the light which has so long shed its lustre 

 over those pursuits of industry, falsely deemed more elevated in their 

 tendencies, has at length reached us, and rendered intelligible the com- 

 plicated and wonderful laws by which a Beneficent Creator has or- 

 dained that he who sows the seed shall reap the harvest. 



