OEIGIN AND PEOGRESS 



OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PROMO- 

 TION OF AGRICULTURE. 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Society for promoting Agricul- 

 ture, held Nov. 1st, 1844, 



A letter was read, addressed to Mr. Quincy, by B. P. Johnson, 

 Esq., in behalf of the New- York State Agricultural vSociety, requesting 

 some facts in relation to the origin and progress of the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture. It was thereupon voted, that the 

 letter be committed to the President, (Mr. Welles) and Mr. Quincy, 

 and that they be requested to reply to Mr. Johnson. 



At a subsequent meeting of the board of trustees, on the 11th of 

 January, 1845, a reply in the form of a report was offered by Mr. 

 Welles, and read to the board, and by them approved, and a copy 

 directed to be sent to Mr. Quincy, to be transmitted to Mr. Johnson. 

 A copy of the record, 



BENJ. GUILD, 

 Recording Secretary of the Massachusetts Society for 

 the Promotion of Agriculture. 



As soon as the Independence of the country was established, the 

 attention of the community was at once led to the consideration of 

 the state of our agriculture. 



A war of seven years had fallen heavily on the farmer ; whilst his 

 efforts had been called into exercise with success, in another fieldy 

 his homestead had become cheerless and barren. 



This alone was sufficient to excite the general sympathy. 



The new relations in which the different classes of the community 

 stood at home, and the effects on the value of our productions 

 abroad by the change of our foreign relations, became objects of great 

 solicitude. It became therefore a prevailing desire that earnest ef- 

 forts should be made to improve whatever discoveries had been made 

 in cultivation at home or abroad, and that a full knowledge thereof, 

 should be disseminated to excite and enlarge the production of the 

 country, which was looked to prospectively, as an essential object for 

 the common welfare ; as from the mode of the early settlement of 

 the country, our cultivation was of narrow and limited extent ; an 

 increase of the capacity of production was therefore highly desirable. 

 Impresssed with these sentiments, in the year 1792, application was 

 made by a large number of respectable citizens to the Legislature of 

 Massachusetts, and an act was passed " To incorporate and establish 



