20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and its kindred subjects in the hands of fai-mors, and from the 

 avidity with which our Agricultural Reports are received. 



One of the strongest positions assumed by the ' practical man' in 

 his self-conceit, against 'book farming' as he found it, has been, 

 that the principles there given for our guidance, were derived from 

 experiments conducted in other countries, or in distant parts of 

 our own, where differences of climate, soil, customs and modes of 

 operation, rendered the whole inapplicable with us and worthless. 

 This position wears a semblance of truth, and so far as it has force, 

 it still remains unabated. 



The laws of the State under which our agricultural societies have 

 been conducted in the last few years, were wisely conceived to aid 

 in supplying a pressing want, by prompting those who shoidd 

 claim the bounties of the societies, so to conduct their operations 

 as to be able to give in detail their practice. 



The leading questions published by the State Society and some 

 of the County societies, and the cii'culars issued by the Secretary 

 of this Board, would seem to have been sufficient to the production, 

 in some degree, of that desirable practice which these means were 

 designed to accomplish. 



Gentlemen at this Board familiar with the working machinery of 

 agricultural societies, through whose bands have passed the state- 

 ments required of applicants for premiums, will, I think, bear me 

 witness, and our Secretary will perhaps admit, that nine-tenths of 

 all such documents for any year, contain a sum total of intelligence 

 that may be best expressed by an absolute nothing. The spirit of 

 the law is inoperative, and tlie letter is sought to be evaded at every 

 turn. Our whole operations are fast becoming a by-word and a 

 reproach. 



We will try our hand at drawing a picture or two, which gentlemen 

 will perhaps recognize as more than a sketch from idle fancy : 



On the day of the show and fair, a man approaches the good- 

 natured Secretary, and asks to have an animal entered for a pre- 

 mium. It is at a late hour, and business presses. The individual 

 lives, perhaps, in the immediate vicinity of the show, and has been 

 watching the progress of the entries and the arrival of stock, and 

 Bces a place where there is a promise of little or no competition. 

 His entry is made and ho watches events. The judges proceed to 

 pass upon such articles as are shown them. They arc in a hurry 

 and have no inclination to examine the statements of the several 

 competitors. Tliey shulllc off their task, tliinking, perhaps, that 



