AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 147 



society is prosperous enough to wisely devote some portion of its 

 income each year in this line of service. Farmers do not refuse to 

 read, — all men read these days, — and what we read becomes our 

 thought, and instructs only less than seeing. To read, and 

 grasp, and analyze the thought of others, is analogous to grasp- 

 ing with the hand an object and holding it before our eyes. 

 Reading and observing, both, are the presenting of objects or 

 ideas to the mind. Both are instruments of culture, and only 

 by our using both can our agriculture be perfected. Then the 

 essayist may bring to a prominence ideas that are incapable of 

 being brought to the mind through seeing. Many of the prob- 

 lems of agriculture may not be elucidated at the fair ; they 

 concern rotation of crops, manures, the influence of the seasons, 

 effects of drainage, the how to do, and when. Indeed, one-half 

 of what is to be learned in agriculture is learned necessarily 

 from social instruction, from reading, and, it may be added, great 

 thinking. 



Then if we may consider a society as doing its greatest, we 

 shall think of its serving in every particular the cause, and as 

 we regard a man who can think as well as work, so we shall re- 

 gard this society. It will be a harmonious, equal, in no wise a 

 one-sided organization doing half a work. 



It has been complained that our Transactions interested but 

 a few persons, and the secretary has said that he found it diffi- 

 cult to dispose of the number of copies printed. The reason is 

 obvious. They were of little worth. The Transactions have 

 been little more than memoranda of exhibition day's work, and 

 brief at that. 



Allow the secretary to print a good prize essay or two, put 

 into the annual prize pamphlet some good agricultural thought, 

 as he always can, if no prize essays are obtained, by seeking it 

 in the proper places. It is not necessary for the matter to be 

 original, but it must be new to this community. 



It is for the society, or more properly its officers, to desig- 

 nate topics for essays. In place of proposing two or three 

 merely, I would have the list considerably extended, so that the 

 essayist may have considerable choice of subjects. There wil 

 be more chance of the society engaging able minds, and also 

 securing an essay. It may be asked what shall be done, the 

 society wishing to print two essays a year, should there be pre- 



