FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 41 



science, as applicable in botany and entomology. In 

 1809 another township was granted to the society on 

 like conditions. This tract appears to have been 

 shared equally by the state of Maine, through a con- 

 struction of a clause relating to public lands in the act 

 by which Maine was separated from this State. In the 

 contract with the college as to the administration of 

 the professorship it was stipulated by the society that 

 an acre of land should be devoted to raising seeds of 

 culinary vegetables and producing specimens of new 

 and useful grains and grasses. 



In 1813 the society's permanent funds, being the 

 sum of what had been contributed by members, with 

 accrued interest, amounted to nearly $20,000. Liberal 

 payments had been made each year in premiums. As 

 early as 1808, the total of annual premiums offered 

 was more than $1,000. In 1814 the legislature made 

 what is recognized in the society's current publication 

 as "a liberal grant." It was an allowance of $1,000 

 annually from the public treasury "for printing and 

 circulating their publications on agriculture only ; for 

 the raising of seeds and plants, or the expense of any 

 experiments made by them with a view to promote 

 agricultural knowledge." 



The satisfaction which the members of the society 

 must have felt upon this action of the Legislature was 

 not limited to the pecuniary benefit thereby conferred, 

 for in the resolve itself as adopted and printed in the 

 official volume of acts and resolves are embodied, as 

 preamble to the resolve, these gracious words of the 

 committee reporting thereupon: "Your committee are 

 satisfied that the object and design of the society are 

 laudable and useful; that it has a tendency to diffuse 

 knowledge and promote a spirit of inquiry and im- 

 provement, and your committee are also convinced 



