58G AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



^J-y- may be noted. The returns give definite ideas, and are capable of a con- 

 deusaliou that fits them for a territory of the largest extent. The machinery 

 through which it acts is excellent, and the final examinations and reports are 

 made by the secretary general of the Royal Board of Agriculture, who is a 

 privy councillor. 



3. United States. — Before stating the plan pursued in this department, it is 

 proper to allude to the causes which called it into existence. 



The vast agriculture of the United States, and the remoteness of the regions 

 of great production from the places of consumption, require several sales to be 

 made between the producer and consumer. The meats and large quantities of 

 breadstufi"s are sold in the months of November and December. 



The banks, to meet the great demands upon them for the purchase of so large 

 products in so short a time, reduce their discounts largely in the fall, and thus 

 the opening of the fall markets is in a greatly lessened amount of paper circu- 

 latioa. The scarcity of money, the abundance of the crops, with other well 

 arranged alarms about the prospect of a European demand, led to a depression 

 of prices, which generally was not well got over before the crops had passed 

 from the control of the producer. 



Against this injustice intelligent farmers would remonstrate; but what availed 

 their scattered and unconcerted efibrts against the influences they encountered ? 

 But Avith the successful formation of county and State agricultural associations, 

 the means of more concerted action were at hand. 



The following circular, addressed to other State agricultural societies by the 

 president of the ^laryland State Agricultural Society, shows the nature and the 

 purpose of the first efibrt to collect, speedily, returns of the annual crops : 



" Centreville, Queen Anne County, Md., July 16, 1855. 



"Dear Sir: For the promotion of the favmiug interest of the country we are auxious to 

 procure the earliest reliable information possible of the crops, that the same may be laid before 

 the farmer to guide him in the selection of the best time to dispose of the fruits of his labors. 

 This duty should properly be imposed upon an agricultural department of the general gov- 

 ernment ; but in the absence of such provision, and iu view of the artful practices of specu- 

 lators and others, operating most disastrously through the base venality of the public press, 

 upon this leading interest, the obligation is devolved upoa us. 



" The question arises, how shall we best discharge it ? Shall we rest content, as heretofore, 

 to do nothing ; to sit with our hands before us without an efibrt to secure that information 

 which by concert of action is entirely within our reach ; to see oin- brother farmers robbed of 

 twenty to thirty per cent, of the labors of their hands, by the superior information and cunning 

 of the astute purchaser, merely from an indisposition on our part to make that exertion neces- 

 sary to secure the important end we shoulcJ earaestly labor to accomplish ? The answer is 

 hut too plain, and pronounces such a cotu'se to be altogether unworthy of sensible men. Let 

 this charge, then, of inefSciency, of want of energy to secure our own interest, no longer 

 rest upon us ; but if we have not already, let us at once so organize the societies of our re- 

 spective States as to make them efficient in procuring this information so all-important to the 

 farmers. 



"Letushave gentlemen of intelligence and reliable judgment in each countyof our respective 

 States, connected not only by position as officers, but by interest, too, with our State socie- 

 ties, that we may have a right to call on statedly for information touching the crops of their 

 different localities. They can be directed to forward their reports to some selected officer, 

 whose duty it should be to collate them and disseminate the information thus deduced through 

 the public press, and by circulars transmitted to ejich of the State agricultural societies of 

 the Union. 



"We will invite your attention to the organization of our Maryland Agricultural Society 

 as well adapted t-o promote the object contemplated, and for your information ask your 

 perusal of a circular, which we herewith enclose, and which we had the honor of addressing 

 to our sister societies at the time of its date. 



" We hope to be able to lay before you a statement of the wheat, grass, and oat crops of 

 Maryland by the 1st of September, and of the corn crop by the Ist or middle of Novembei. 



"Earnestly soliciting your co-operation iu this important matter, 

 ' ' I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 



"JAMES T. EARLE, 

 " President of MartjLund State AgriciUtural Society. 



" President i>f State Agricultural Society." • 



