22 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



grown sort that prefers the old ways. The mass of 

 farmers of that period lacked the quick intelligence 

 that success in their occupation requires. Probably 

 the instruction of the common schools had been but a 

 feeble affair during the preceding seventeen years. 

 But had all been disposed to read and experiment there 

 were no guides and no text books. Neither in this 

 country or Great Britain, in 1792, had any newspaper 

 or magazine devoted to agriculture been issued, and 

 as respects the latter country there is the best authority 

 for saying, that "the first systematic work on agricul- 

 ture that really advanced the art" did not appear till 

 1805. 



Progress was slow in the society's enterprise at first. 

 In the rural tavern talk the members were held to be 

 mere "theoretical farmers," in contrast with the only 

 desirable sort, the "practical farmers;" and it was not 

 long before the more trenchant term of "gentlemen 

 farmers," was applied to the innovators. Some of the 

 early publications of the Society were condemned as 

 containing articles "above the capacity of common 

 farmers." Even as late as the date of the first public 

 exhibition, or "cattle fair," of the society one in this 

 frame of mind complimented the managers of the 

 ploughing match upon "the speed of their oxen," the 

 sarcasm being in a levelling down of the competition 

 to the then accepted opinion as to the utility of horse 

 racing. 



To these various criticisms the officers of the Society 

 made reply in their publications from time to time, 

 but, conscious that nothing on their part justified these 

 taunts they did not answer in a like spirit. Indeed, in 

 an official paper of 1799, the mildness and candor of 

 the declaration are such that the case is almost stated 

 in the terms of the adverse party. The document says: 



