XV PREFACE. 



Much greater promptness is needed in preparing the 

 Transactions, on the part of the officers of some of the 

 societies. Complete returns were not made till after the 

 first of March of the present year, by several societies 

 required by law to make these returns on or before the 

 10th of December, 1855. The difficulty of getting the 

 full returns in season for use in this abstract has been 

 found to be such as to require a more rigid construction 

 of the law hereafter. 



Far greater care is also needed in the measurement of 

 crops entered for premiums, in several of the societies, 

 where the practice in this respect is surprisingly loose 

 and unsatisfactory. The mere "guess" of a committee or 

 of an individual is not sufficient, where exactness can by 

 any means be obtained. The remarks of Mr. Colman, 

 with reference to the Berkshire Society, nearly twenty 

 years ago, might not inappropriately be applied to several 

 societies even at this day. "As I understood," says he, 

 "the mode of examination adopted by the committees, it 

 was much more matter of judgment than of exact meas- 

 urement. In all cases of grain crops, or of other crops 

 which admit of ari accurate ascertainment, this should be 

 insisted upon hy the Societi/ before bestowing the premium ; 

 and where exactness cannot be reached, it should be 

 approached as nearly as possible. In addition to this, 

 the claimant for the premium should be required to give 

 a full and detailed account of his cultivation, the nature 

 and condition of the soil, the manures used, quantity and 

 kind ; the quantity of seed, the kind of seed, its prepara- 

 tion, and time and manner of sowing, the after cultivation 

 of the crop, the mode of harvesting, the use and value of 



