22 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



publish the advertisements of the society gratuitously, a 

 proof of the public interest which attached to them. 

 Among the new members admitted was John Hancock, 

 then Governor of the State. 



At the trustees' meeting in November, subscriptions to 

 the permanent fund of the society to the amount of $3,363, 

 were reported. President Russell, who had subscribed 

 $1,000, added to his gift such sum as might procure a com- 

 mon seal for the society, and a committee to report a de- 

 vice for a seal was appointed. At a subsequent meeting a 

 society seal was adopted, the design of which was described 

 by the committee as follows : " A plough should be a part 

 of the device, with a pair of oxen, connected by a chain to 

 the same. A stone wall, and a quick fence, with a gate ; 

 the field beyond the gate, with sheep and cattle; the motto 

 SOURCE OF WEALTH : filled upon the garter around 

 the margin of the Seal, Massachusetts Society for Promot- 

 ing Agriculture^ incorporated 1792. ," 



At the December meeting the first instance occurred in 

 which the society had called to its attention an improve- 

 ment in farming apparatus. This was in a letter from one 

 who styled himself ' A New Hampshire Farmer," and the 

 article was described as an improved cart " for conveying 

 empty barrels, and convenient also for loading hay." The 

 invention was probably not of much value, as no action ap- 

 pears to have been taken by the trustees ; but the inventor 

 is entitled to mention here as being the file leader in a 

 procession of thousands, who, in the experience of this and 

 kindred societies in this State, have since come forward, 

 each bearing his peculiar " Yankee notion." Many of 

 these, it need not be said, were at once or after a brief 

 trial, taken out of the rank of " notions " and accepted as 

 the farmer's indispensable appliances, adding height to his 

 stature, strength to his frame, and swiftness and deftness to 

 his manipulation. 



At the meeting in January, 1793, a petition to the Gen- 

 eral Court was prepared, asking for its cooperation and 



