30 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



what was Jacking in the latter might be supplied, if within 

 the limits of reasonable cost ; hemp and flax cultivation, 

 and machines for preparing the fibre ; apparatus for rapidly 

 moving bodies of earth ; improved breeding of the native 

 sheep ; cultivation of onions ; raising apple trees from the 

 seed ; the management of bees*; care of orchards and 

 pruning ; raising of hoop-poles ; a description of Thomas 

 Jefferson's newly invented plough and mould-board ; and 

 improvement of wild lands. A method of removing brush 

 without ploughing, and another by ploughing and following 

 with a peculiarly constructed harrow, were passed upon. 



In an award in this line there is a special manifestation 

 of comity with reference to the newly formed Sturbridge 

 Agricultural Society. The trustees say, that while the 

 writer of the essay " does not propose an entirely new 

 method, yet in consideration that it has borne the test of 

 experience, and being attested by a respectable agricultural 

 society in the county of Worcester, it is adjudged a pre- 

 mium." At the last meeting in December, 1799, the trus- 

 tees issued the printed list of forty-nine questions to which 

 President Lowell referred in remarks already quoted. The 

 purpose of these was to learn, through the widest inquiry 

 possible, the actual condition of agriculture throughout the 

 State, both as respects improvements made and defects ex- 

 isting, with intention that by subsequent circulation of 

 information, remedies for the latter might be suggested. 



The affairs of this early period have been presented 

 somewhat more fully and minutely than is contemplated in 

 narrating the later history, wherein a statement of the 

 more significant and conspicuous facts will suffice, and will 

 bear like testimony. What has been given certifies to the 

 zeal, diligence, liberality of spirit and breadth of view 

 with which the society began its work ; that almost from 

 the beginning a perceptible impression was made upon the 

 minds of the more intelligent part of the community, and 

 tended thus towards a revival of agriculture ; and that in 

 starting little rills of influence, which later broadened into 



