FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 129 



on land not suitable for general agricultural purposes, and 

 to have 2,700 trees per acre ; also premiums of $600 and 

 $400 were offered for five acre lots of white ash, not less 

 than 5,000 to the acre. 



It was also voted to reprint, for gratuitous distribution, 

 an edition of 10,000 copies of the essay on forest-tree plant- 

 ing by Prof. Charles S. Sargent of Harvard College, a 

 trustee of this society. This was originally published in 

 the annual report of the Board of Agriculture, and was now 

 issued with a new preface, written by the professor. 



A plan of co-operation with Harvard College in making 

 experiments, and giving instruction in agricultural chemis- 

 try, arboriculture and botany, as related to agriculture, was 

 agreed upon soon after the college authorities established 

 the Bussey Institute, and organized it with a corps of pro- 

 fessors. About $2,500 per annum was applied in this way, 

 during the ten years prior to 1880, the grant being, once or 

 twice, as large as $3,500, and reduced to $1500 in other- 

 years ; and a part of the expenditure each year was made 

 at the Botanic Garden in Cambridge. The experiments 

 were made to some extent under the direction or in con- 

 formity with suggestions of the trustees, and consisted in 

 part of analyses of soils, and patented or imported fertili- 

 zers. The State Agricultural College was also a beneficiary 

 of the society during the same period, the gift being about 

 $250, each year, for scholarships. Various other things 

 helpful to agriculture were done, among which were the is- 

 suing of pamphlets, treating on new or otherwise pertinent 

 topics ; the donation of $500 as premiums at the exhibition 

 of the Pomological Society in 1873, and $500 to the same 

 in 1880 ; a gift of $200 to aid an ingenious student at the 

 Agricultural College in perfecting his device for a steam 

 plough ; a gift of $500 to aid the Agassiz summer school at 

 Pemikese island, a part of the instruction there given, hav- 

 ing relation to agriculture ; a gift of $250 for engraving 

 plates to illustrate a treatise on the fungi of trees and 

 plants, being the result of studies by one of the professors 



