DISTRIBUTION OF DOCUMENTS. 351 



encc ill 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 put 

 them everywhere 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 th'ng, and requires no little 

 care and anxious thought. Many hundred volumes go each 

 year into the distant towns which often have no representative 

 in the legislature, and are 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 say that 

 the object proposed in the distribution of these works was to 

 put them where they would do most good, and to disseminate 

 useful and reliable information among the ftirmers and others 

 who desired it, all over the State. Nor can it be said, as it 

 sometimes has been, with any justice or truth, that the dis- 

 tribution is partial or incomplete ; for any farmer in the 

 Commonwealth, who is interested enough in the subject to 

 send to my office, through his representative to the legisla- 

 ture, or otherwise, can procure a copy of these publications, 

 the only question asked being whether he is a farmer, and 

 resides in this State. 



The Board of Agriculture also distributed many hundred 

 volumes of the Patent Office lleport on Agriculture, subse- 

 quently known as the Reports of the Department of Agricult- 

 ure, and many thousand packages of seeds, of which some 

 were received through the Department at Washington, 

 and others imported directly from abroad. I need not 

 enlarge on the good which was accomplished in this way, 

 both by the diffusion of useful knowledge, and the 

 introduction of superior varieties of vegetables, fruits and 

 grains. Much attention has also been paid to the establish- 

 ment of an exchange of agricultural documents with other 

 States of the Union which publish volumes similar to our 

 own. Copies . of their reports have been and are thus 



