348 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the present Secretary entered upon the duties of his office on 

 the 14:th of February, 1853. It may seem hardly proper for 

 him to speak of the manner in which these duties have been 

 performed, yet every fiirmer should know their nature and 

 extent, and on this account I trust I may be allowed to speak 

 freely, without incurring the imputation of arrogating to myself 

 more credit than fairly belongs to me. I should add here, 

 that whatever I have done, has been done by the advice and 

 with the approbation and concurrence of the Board after care- 

 ful deliberation both on their part and mine ; and if any good 

 shall be found to have resulted from our united efforts, the mem- 

 bers of the Board should receive their full meed of approba- 

 tion for it. 



In the first place, the law which establishes the Board requires 

 that "all the duties of the secretary of the Commonwealth relat- 

 ing to the returns of the agricultural societies shall be performed 

 by the secretary of the Board of Agriculture." In the year 

 1845, a law was passed requiring the secretary of the Com- 

 monwealth to prepare an annual Abstract of the Returns of the 

 County Societies. But the secretary of State was very rarely 

 a man specially interested in the subject, besides which innu- 

 merable other duties made it impossible for him to do the 

 work himself. Hence it was done out of his office, and the 

 Commonwealth was charged wath the extra service, and this 

 arrangement continued down to the time of the establishment 

 of the Board. The volume was substantially a reprint of the 

 county transactions, the different reports being but little con- 

 densed. When the Board of Agriculture undertook the 

 preparation of the volume for 1853, an entirely new system 

 was adopted, the material was arranged according to subjects, 

 thus bringing together all the statements and experiments in 

 all parts of the State, making the whole far more convenient 

 for reference and more interesting and useful, while a complete 

 index was added at the end, increasing the value and useful- 

 ness of the volume manifold. A new feature was added to 

 the volumes with but little expense to the State, in the shape 

 of illustrations of animals and farm buildinjjs, and I miirht 

 quote innumerable letters from farmers in other States, and 

 appeal to the almost universal testimony of the agricultural 



