PREFACE. 



The materials returned by the various societies, for 

 the past year, have been somewhat more than usually 

 condensed. One reason for this was, that a certain class 

 of statements, in some of the reports, was found to be 

 precisely the same, year after year, — stereotyped, as it 

 were, — so that nothing new w^as added upon the subject- 

 matter to which they relate. As matters of reference, a 

 few, even of such statements, may be valuable ; but they 

 can possess no general mterest, nor add any tlimg of 

 permanent value to the present stock of knowledge on 

 those subjects. 



The plan adopted at the outset was, to exclude from 

 this volume all matter which was not of some general 

 interest or value. This was evidently the contemplation 

 of the law which required the annual publication of an 

 abstract of the returns. A thousand details may be of 

 interest and value in the Transactions of the county, 

 which are of no general interest whatever. It matters 

 little to Mr. A., in Berkshire county, whether Mr. B., in 

 Essex county, receives a gratuity of twenty-five cents, on 

 a show of vegetables, or not. Such details have, there- 

 fore, been excluded, as of little interest in a volume 

 intended for general distribution. 



