U BOARD QF AGRICULTURE. 



"would cast into contempt an occupation on which all classes 

 depend, — a refinement not less dangerous to the Common- 

 wealth, than it is contemptible in the individual who cherishes 

 it, — and labored zealously to remove it. The change produced 

 in popular feeling by the various causes above referred to, re- 

 sulted in the increased number, prosperity and influence, of the 

 County Agricultural Societies. The State, too, began, in 1819, 

 to lend some efficient aid to the advancement of its first great 

 industrial pursuit, while the growing demand for raw material 

 for manufacturing purposes, opened a home market — the best 

 of all markets — to the farmers of the State. 



The progress of the agriculture of the State for the last 

 thirty years has been more marked. The general diffusion of 

 some dctrree of scientific knowledge, and the great increase of 

 the number of readers in the community, have undoubtedly 

 contributed largely to it, while the good efi"ects of associated 

 effort are too striking to be overlooked, and are now univer- 

 sally acknoAvledged. At the commencement of this period, a 

 restless and unsatisfied desire of change was doing much to 

 unsettle the minds of men, in all parts of the State. It tended 

 to prevent all permanent improvements on land, as men feared 

 that they might never be paid for their labor, and felt that their 

 children would not sta}^ at home to reap the benefit of it. This 

 feeling was not by any means difficult to account for. It was 

 the legitimate successor of the short-sighted policy which had 

 led the farmers of an earlier day to work merely to satisfy 

 present necessity, and keep ofi" absolute starvation, without 

 regard to the comforts and hopes of the future. The injurious 

 effects which resulted from these narrow and selfish views, 

 cannot now be estimated. They were completely destructive 

 of that enterprise and desire for improvement in young men, 

 which a different feeling, on the part of those who had gone 

 before them, would have cherished and encouraged. The far- 

 mer's sons were, sometimes, even trained up with the idea that 

 the farm was to be sold. They had little inducement to sow 

 where they could never expect to reap. The disastrous season 

 of 1816 had, perhaps, contriljuted somewhat to discourage the 

 farmer. Evils came in quick succession. Not a month occurred 

 in which there were not frosts. The crops were blighted, and 



