FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 117 



After depicting the felicity, social and political, of 

 the agricultural population of New England, the 

 orator closed with the now familiar lines of the poet: 



What constitutes a state? 



The publication of the society's Journal as a serial 

 ceased in 1827. The occasion of it was that other 

 publications had appeared in newspaper form, con- 

 taining the latest information, with competent dis- 

 cussion, upon agricultural matters. The principal of 

 these, at that time, was the New England Farmer, 

 which was started in the year 1822. In 1823 the 

 trustees of the society bestowed upon it, by a formal 

 vote, a cordial recommendation to the patronage of 

 the public. It was issued weekly and reached its 

 farmer subscribers more promptly than could the 

 society, with its semi-annual issue. It was welcomed, 

 therefore, as a valuable auxiliary in the society's work, 

 and intimate relations with it were established, so 

 that it became virtually, the organ of the society. Its 

 founder and editor, Thomas Green Fessenden, was a 

 man well qualified, by education and interest in the 

 cause of agriculture, to conduct it. The degree of 

 that intimacy and the appreciation, by the trustees, 

 of Mr. Fessenden's services and abilities, are indicated 

 by a vote of the board passed soon after his decease 

 in 1837, placing $100 at the disposal of a committee 

 to erect, at his grave, a m.onument. A marble shaft at 

 Mount Auburn bears his name and perpetuates his 

 memory. 



Two volumes of the Journal were published beyond 

 the date of the regular succession, one in 1830 and one 

 in 1832, making ten volumes in all, as put into perma- 

 nent binding. In the final issue the editor reverted to 



