FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 41 



with conditions of general apathy, of more or less prev- 

 alent distrust as to its intentions, and of incredulity that 

 anything important could be gained to the farming inter- 

 est, it had created a feeling of confidence as to the future 

 of the agricultural industry and excited a spirit of in- 

 quiry. It had widely distributed thousands of pages of 

 printed matter, supplying the best information then obtain- 

 able relating to the art ; given impetus to the formation 

 of numerous co-working societies, and printed the essays 

 and contributed to the premiums of some of the more 

 important among them ; it had introduced new seeds and 

 plants and choice breeds of farm animals, from foreign 

 lands ; brought new modes of farming into acceptance 

 among leading farmers in different parts of the State, 

 thereby exerting an exemplary influence upon others who 

 gave to books and pamphlets no welcome ; it had set fairly 

 at work the inventive faculty of the land in devising better 

 farming apparatus ; enlisted science to search and exper- 

 iment in the behest of agriculture ; and, by its successful 

 cattle show, had reached the popular heart (which is al- 

 ways responsive in beholding the novel and the extraor- 

 dinary), thereby entering upon a radically different but 

 most effective method of diffusing agricultural knowledge, 

 the method of " object teaching." 



In this retrospect one event already mentioned may 

 briefly be dwelt upon, since it will recall, with special 

 distinctness and amid interesting circumstances, a historic 

 figure, and will permit, in the way of preface, reference 

 to a practice on the part of the board of trustees which 

 has been kept up from the earliest years to the present 

 time. The event was the retirement of John Adams 

 from the presidency of the society, and the practice is 

 that to which he alludes in his letter of farewell, the 

 holding of business meetings at the residences of mem- 

 bers. There being twelve members of the board, the 

 custom in recent times has been to designate, at the be- 

 ginning of the year, for each member, the particular 



