FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 113 



common with their fellow citizens, entertain a due sense 

 of the many eminent services rendered to the public by 

 Mr. Webster in his political and professional capacity, 

 they feel bound more particularly to speak of the warm 

 attachment which he manifested, throughout his life, by 

 word and by example, to the pursuit of agriculture ; to 

 bear witness to his comprehensive views of its general 

 principles, and his thorough acquaintance with its practi- 

 cal details, and to express their sense of his loss as one of 

 the ablest, most constant and most distinguished friends 

 of that great interest in our pwn or in any country. 



The year 1853 is the date of the beginning of opera- 

 tions by the State Board of Agriculture, which was 

 created by an act passed in the preceding year. Thence- 

 forth, the formal annual report, which, since 1845, had 

 been required by law to be sent to the secretary of the 

 Commonwealth, was sent to the Board of Agriculture. 

 Intimate relations were established between the society 

 and the board, arising in part from the circumstance that 

 one member of the board is regularly, in conformity to 

 the act of 1852, chosen by the society, to serve for a term 

 of three years. 



The offer, in 1855, of certain premiums may be said to 

 mark, with approximate accuracy, the beginning of a new 

 era in one department of practical agriculture, that of 

 hay-harvesting. The offer was intended to encourage the 

 general, use of the mowing machine, and the official report 

 on the matter shows that it had the desired effect. One 

 premium, of 1600, was open to competition that year, and 

 the other, of $1,000, was seasonably announced, that the 

 competition might be had and the award made in the fol- 

 lowing year. The premium for 1855 was " to the posses- 

 sor of the mowing machine which shall cut, during the 

 present season, with the greatest economy and to the best 

 advantage not less than fifty acres of grass, within the 

 State." The appeal was specifically to the operators of 

 machines, the intent of the trustees being " to bring out 

 .skill in the use of a machine comparatively new, without 



