52 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



was emphatically affirmed in the Journal, with inci- 

 dental commendation of a new variety of early corn 

 cultivated by Samuel W. Pomeroy of Brighton, vice 

 president of the society. The main point of the argu- 

 ment was that if farmers had knowledge of the magni- 

 tude of the particular interest affected favorably or 

 adversely, they would be more generally impelled to 

 active measures. The remark as to corn was: "Every 

 one knows that the crops of Indian corn were gener- 

 ally cut off by frosts in 1816. Had it been known 

 what quantity of Indian corn is usually raised in a 

 season in the county of Middlesex, for example, the 

 loss, in 1816, would probably have been so much more 

 felt that more attention would have been paid to the 

 recommendation of a species of com cultivated by Mr. 

 Pomeroy of Brighton, and others, not a field of which 

 suffered by frost that year. This species, besides bear- 

 ing a large and fruitful ear, husks itself when ripe." 

 In the Journal of the following year Mr. Pomeroy dis- 

 cussed the importance of the corn crop and recom- 

 mended extensive cultivation. Having recognized in 

 his article certain modifying considerations, especially 

 a due regard to rotation of crops, he added this inter- 

 esting remark: "But I wish at the same time to hold 

 up to view the golden fleece found by our Pilgrim 

 Fathers on their first landing, and which, had it not 

 existed or continued with their descendants nearly a 

 century after, the fair inheritance we now possess, in 

 the opinion of many sound political economists, could 

 not have been transmitted to us." 



In 1824 overtures were made by the managers of 

 Dummer Academy in Newbury, for bestowment of the 

 patronage of the society in conducting an experimental 

 farm there. It was implied in the proposition that 

 agricultural instruction should become a part of the 



