THE STATE FARM. 73 



the returns of the county societies, and have so far succeeded 

 as to be able to show at a glance the financial condition of each, 

 to what objects its encouragement is extended, liow much has 

 been paid for any specific object throughout the State, how gen- 

 erally the bounty is distributed, and how much is paid in each 

 town in the society's limits, or in other words, how far the influ- 

 ence of each society extends, and whether it has become local- 

 ized, thus failing to meet the objects the legislature had in 

 view, or is doing its work well and profitably. Thus the Board 

 obtains the most minute details in regard to the distribution of 

 the bounty of the Commonwealth, — a thing Y\rhich was never 

 even attempted, to such an extent, before the adoption of the 

 present system. When it is recollected that this bounty now 

 exceeds the sum of eleven thousand dollars every year, no one, 

 I think, can fail to see the vast importance of what has already 

 been done in this respect, and the great good which may be 

 anticipated hereafter from the perfection of the system. All 

 these details appear in the annual reports already alluded to, 

 and are within the reach of every farmer in the State. 



Another, and a very important part of the labors of the office, 

 is the judicious distribution of the agricultural publications of 

 the State. This work has been performed with far greater care 

 within the past four years, than ever before. One who has had 

 no experience in similar cases, would think this to be a very 

 simple and easy matter, and it would indeed require but very 

 little time or attention merely to send them broadcast over the 

 Commonwealth ; but to distribute them judiciously, to jiut 

 them every where into hands where they will accomplish a 

 good purpose, and stimulate those who have hitherto taken but 

 little interest in the improvement of their lands, and thus to 

 make their good effects felt and seen in the whole aspect of the 

 State, is a very different thing, and requires no little care and 

 anxious thought. Many hundred volumes are sent each year 

 into the distant towns whiclr often have no representative in the 

 legislature, and no express, and put directly into the hands of 

 those who will use them as a means of improvement. I might 

 give extracts from many letters received from different parts of 

 the State, to show what good has come from this part of the 

 labors of the Board ; but it is enough for me to remark in this 

 place, that the object proposed in the distribution of these works 



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