130 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Board of Agriculture would do a service to agriculture, were 

 it to give this thought attention, and endeavor, where error ex- 

 ists, to discover it, and point out a remedy. 



Agricultural societies are interesting when viewed from an- 

 other stand-point. They appeal with considerable urgency to 

 the farmer's good-will, because it is only here, with an exception 

 or two in some districts, that we find farmers in association for 

 the furtherance of their own interests. The principle of cooper- 

 ation, as applicable to the farming community, received its 

 first feeble impulse in the organization of agricultural clubs and 

 societies. The preamble to the constitution of the Middlesex 

 South Agricultural Society begins thus : " Impressed with the 

 importance of associated effort, in carrying forward any enter- 

 prise having for its object the improvement of the community, 

 we, the farmers, &c, organize." The agricultural society has 

 become a familiar form of association with farmers ; it has be- 

 come a principal agency, through which the improvement of the 

 community is sought by them, and as it stands alone, without 

 the rivalry of other forms of association, it may be considered, 

 for present purposes, as the principal means by which this im- 

 provement is to be attained. But it may be remarked, if this is 

 the only place where we find cooperation among farmers, it is 

 quite unlike that sort of cooperation known to several trades. 

 It is less to promote the direct interest of the individual than of 

 the class ; it is less to advance the interest of a class than of the 

 community. There is nothing in the effort at cooperation that 

 injuriously affects the individual, and the strongest criticism 

 that may be made on this attempt to do good in company with 

 others is, that the adhesiveness of the units, if I may be allowed 

 the expression, is too generally insufficient to give either force 

 or dignity to the efforts of the society. To* bring the units into 

 a closer union, to direct the association to larger views, to give 

 more precision to their efforts, and to define the scope of their 

 duties and opportunities, will be the work of maturing years ; 

 and we may hope, as we become more familiar with the agricult- 

 ural society form of association, some other manner of associa- 

 tion, for purposes more directly affecting the farmer as an indi- 

 vidual, may be devised, by which his remuneration may be in 

 juster proportion to his efforts. 



The number of agricultural societies may be taken as a meas- 



