100 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



applicants. In this respect the county, or local socie- 

 ties, have a great advantage over ours." When the 

 practice was entered upon, in 1830, the sworn state- 

 ments of applicants were taken as the basis for deci- 

 sion. Still later the trustees employed an agent to 

 visit farms thus in competition. 



The orator of the year 1820 was Josiah Quincy. He, 

 like Col. Pickering, was familiar with both the prac- 

 tice and theory of farming. An adequate apprehen- 

 sion of theory and practice was the habit of his mind, 

 not better illustrated in conducting a farm than ad- 

 administering the affairs of a city or a university. In 

 preparing his address he had both a practical and a 

 literary end to serve. As to the former he withheld 

 nothing requisite to a proper instruction of his farmer 

 audience; was blunt and plain almost to the point of 

 audacity in the homiletic part of that instruction, and, 

 withal, dealt as aptly as seems possible in regard to 

 the sensibilities of the ladies. He began as follows: 



The board of trustees of the Massachusetts Society 

 for Promoting Agriculture, have requested that I 

 should address you this day on topics connected with 

 the objects of their institution, and with the occasion. 

 In acceding to their appointment I have yielded to 

 considerations of official duty. For the manner in 

 which the task shall be executed, I need not apologize 

 to practical and intelligent men, such as I have now 

 the honor to address. They know well how difficult it 

 is to cast over a trite subject the air of novelty, or to 

 make one that is familiar, interesting. There is also 

 something in the every day labors of agriculture ap- 

 parently too rough for a polished discourse, too 

 common for one that is elevated, and too inseparable 

 from soil and its composts to be treated, to the general 



