SECRETARY'S REPORT. 13 



binations for wicked and treasonable ends; and yet it is iliey 

 who hold the sinewSj both of war and peace, and are the arbi- 

 ters of our destiny ; while so abundant and ready for action are 

 the elements of social discord and political revolution, and so 

 comparatively plentiful are vice and crime in their varied forms 

 in our cities, as almost, if not quite to warrant the saying of a 

 distinguished man, that " large cities are ulcers on the body 

 politic." In a country too like ours, where the cultivators of 

 the soil are also its owners, they form a sound, safe, and con- 

 servative middle class, which holds in check both the rapacity, 

 and despotic tendency, of the unprincipled wealthy and talented 

 on the one hand, and the lavv'lcss violence and unbridled pas- 

 sions of the viciously poor and ignorant, on the other. 



" God made the country, man made the town," and the -differ' 

 ence is what might be expected from the diverse characters of 

 the makers. Experience shows that it is to the country that 

 the nation must ever look, not only for the elements of material 

 power and greatness, but for law, order and right, — for protec- 

 tion from civil discord, — for resistance to tyranny and injusticej 

 to wrong in any shape, or from any source. 



Sketch of associated effort and of legislation in Maine J'elative 



to agriculture. 



The story of associated effort and of legislative action, for 

 the promotion of agriculture in Maine, though brief, is interest- 

 ing and valuable, as furnishing instruction which may serve to 

 guide and guard in future effort, — failure not less than success 

 having its lessons. 



It is now nearly seventy years since associated effort for 

 agricultural improvement commenced in this state, and yet 

 how small a proportion of our farmers are thoroughly aroused 

 . to the value and importance of such efforts, or even conscious 

 of how much has been accomplished by them. During these 

 years, through what an alternation of hopes and despondencies, 

 successes and failures, have the pioneers in this cause passed ! 

 Many of them have gone to their rest, yet their works do fol- 

 low them. Their mark is deep and distinct on the movements 

 then commenced, and now progressing towards maturity, and 



