THE PRESENT WANT AND FUTUHE DUTY. 71 



TEE SPREAD OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



From the beginnings thus imperfectly sketched, Agricul 

 tural Societies and Farmers Clubs have multiplied and spread, 

 until now there are none of the States, and but few of the 

 Territories, which are destitute of more or less organizations 

 of this character. These hold annual fairs, and distribute 

 large amounts in premiums yearly, embracing the entire 

 scope of agricultural and horticultural art, and domestic 

 manufactures. Agricultural Societies are in active operation 

 in nearly every county of the Northern States. In the 

 South, the popular interest in these matters is spreading 

 steadily, and deepening every-where. It will be but a few 

 years, at most, before this section of the Union will be enabled 

 to organize societies as generally as have the East and West. 



THE PRESENT WANT AND FUTURE DUTY. 



What is now wanted, and what is slowly being secured, is a 

 unity of action by which the town and district clubs proper 

 may become the integrals of the county societies, these again 

 sustaining the same relation to the State Boards of Agricul 

 ture, which, in their turn, may form the constituent members 

 of a National Society, whose duty it shall be to advance the 

 true interests of the agricultural masses. The perfect or 

 ganization thus outlined must be formed by the persistent 

 action of the Clubs, Granges, Farmers Unions, etc., that are 

 now being organized in vast numbers throughout the land. 



When the prime object for which these societies are now 

 being instituted shall have been attained ; that is, when the 

 Transportation Companies have been brought back to a prac 

 tical realization of their position as servants of the people, 

 instead of being as now their masters ; when the towering 

 monopolies now overshadowing the land have been crippled; 



