FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 67 



and acknowledge that they have done everything in 

 their power to promote an enlightened and improved 

 course of agriculture, and surely they may be con- 

 tented with this merit, without wishing to deprive 

 other societies of their humble share in this common 

 cause. 



The character of the witness sufficiently supports 

 the statement; but one who should critically read the 

 early records of the society, though pursuing his task 

 in an "unkind" spirit, would be persuaded, that, what- 

 ever motives had sway with the board of trustees, 

 neither pretence of self-importance nor pride of sec- 

 tion was among them. They gave place, at once, to 

 anybody who would lead the way, v/hatsoever the dis- 

 tance or the point of the compass from which he 

 approached. No clergyman could be so obscure in 

 fame, or pursue his calling so remote from towns, but 

 that his discourse, if befitting to the hour, found place 

 at the earliest opportunity in the society's periodical, 

 and himself prompt award of its first premium. Did 

 scientific merit manifest itself in distant "Down 

 East?" It was welcomed and rewarded, and given 

 opportunity and scope in the gardens of Harvard 

 College. Was it ascertained that a New Hampshire 

 man had made a more excellent churn ; that a Vermont 

 man had superior knowledge about raising barley and 

 brewing farm-house beer; that a Connecticut man had 

 shown special enterprise in importing better sheep; 

 that a New Yorker had produced the ideal plough? 

 Though not specifically chartered to that end, the 

 society sent its medal or other encomium across the 

 State border in each instance, precisely as if the in- 

 ventor or discoverer had lived within sight of the State 

 House dome. No dubious thought about local pres- 



