FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 12T 



summer ; but the negotiations failed through a division of 

 opinion, or of authority, among the owners of the building, 

 and the trustees reluctantly abandoned their project. 



In 1870 Thomas Motley was chosen president of the so- 

 ciety, in place of George W. Lyman, who resigned after a 

 service in that office of 13 yeafs. In 1870 a premium of 

 |1,000 was paid to B. Perley Poore of Newbury for a plan- 

 tation of forest trees. This premium was offered in 1857, 

 the conditions, in part, being that the area must be at least 

 five acres, the trees of a wood used in shipbuilding, with 

 one white oak for every twenty square yards of ground, the 

 award to be made in 1870. In April, 1871, the trustees 

 ordered an importation of twelve English harrows, for use 

 in loosening the surface of grass land and pastures, and 

 breaking into fragments top-dressing, or other fertilizing 

 material, thereupon. In August, an exhibition of the appa- 

 ratus was made before the trustees, at a farm in Brookline, 

 and it received, promptly, the official approval and recom- 

 mendation. At the same meeting in August, a paper was 

 read describing the appearance and habits of the potato 

 bug, or Colorado beetle, and giving account of its ravages 

 in some places, with suggestion of remedial measures. It 

 was ordered to be printed and distributed at once for the 

 information of farmers in this State. 



In 1872 was received the amount of a bequest to the so- 

 ciety by Francois Andre Michaux of Versailles, France, a 

 net sum of $7,807.67. He was an eminent scientist who 

 gave his attention chiefly to botany and related subjects. 

 He visited this country first in 1785, with his father, Andre 

 Michaux, who was of equal eminence as a botanist. His 

 second visit was in 1801, when he carried to completion 

 certain investigations and experiments which his father had 

 begun. He came again in 1806 and made an exploration 

 of the whole Atlantic seaboard region, from Maine to Geor- 

 gia, inclusive. Another sojourn occurred in 1816, at which 

 time he was elected an honorary member of the Massachu- 

 setts Society for Promoting Agriculture. He received a 



