10 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In respect to the fertility of its soil, it does not compare very 

 favorably with many other counties in the Commonwealth. 

 We have a great variety of soil, capable of a high state of cul- 

 tivation ; but from various causes it has been much neglected, 

 and large tracts of land have been left to run to waste, and have 

 become almost valueless. 



From my early knowledge of the habits and pursuits of my 

 ancestry, I can call to mind the indolent and inactive life they 

 pursued. They had no relish for the cultivation of the soil any 

 further than their own immediate wants. The farm of four 

 hundred acres, on which a large portion of this city is built, pro- 

 duced less than what is now produced on many a farm of less 

 than fifty acres. The very grounds on which my residence now 

 stands, at one period in my remembrance, was reputed too poor 

 to raise even white beans, and I have seen on the adjoining land 

 a crop of grass so light that it was difficult to find it when mowed. 

 These same lands have yielded the past year more than three 

 tons of hay to the acre. 



For a long series of years, the progress of agricultural science 

 has been very slow, and even now the principal pursuits of our 

 county are manufacturing, whale fishery and the mechanic arts. 

 We have had in the past among us many strong and ardent 

 friends of agriculture, — men who were willing to devote their 

 time and means to promote its interest ; but a large majority of 

 the community have been disposed to shun all participation in 

 the cause. 



I cannot, however, forget on this occasion, one who was 

 widely known as a strong and persistent friend of agriculture ; 

 and perhaps no man in our county did more to inaugurate new 

 measures to advance . the interest of the Bristol County Society 

 than this man. I refer to the Hon. J. H. W. Page. He* was 

 truly my friend. It was mainly through his influence, that I 

 was first led to take an interest, and finally to become identified 

 with the management of the society. 



At the time I became acquainted with the society (there being 

 at that time only one society, the Bristol County), we had no 

 fixed location, although for the most of the time our annual 

 gatherings were held in Taunton. 



In 1854, the Horticultural Society of New Bedford gave our 

 society a cordial invitation to meet with them, engaging on 



