FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 125 



shipmasters who had bestowed special care upon the 

 animals during the voyage. 



An important share of the society's bounty con- 

 tinued to be offered, each year, after the suspension of 

 its cattle shows, in premiums for the best cultivated 

 farm, for the largest crop per acre of certain vege- 

 tables, for the cultivation of forest and other trees, for 

 useful inventions, etc. It also contributed each year 

 to the total of premiums offered by certain of the 

 county agricultural societies, presumably those whose 

 pecuniary resources were least, or those where certain 

 lines of agriculture, deemed specially desirable, were 

 pursued, either because of the enterprise of the farm- 

 ing population or favorable situation. Such premiums 

 were usually, if not invariably, in whatever county 

 offered, open to competitors from all other counties. 

 The total of premiums paid in the year 1838 was $900, 

 and in each year up to 1842, several hundred dollars. 

 The state of things as respects the use of the plough, 

 at this period, is indicated in the fact that, in 1837, a 

 premium of $30 was offered to any mechanic "to con- 

 struct and introduce, for the use of farmers, a sub-soil 

 plough." In 1840, as previously intimated, it had 

 become well understood that the ideal of a plough for 

 ordinary use had not been fully attained in the manu- 

 facture of that instrument on the Jeffersonian lines, 

 with the early New York improvements. Accordingly, 

 the society offered these premiums: "For the best 

 plough that will turn the sod over and lay it flat, 

 regard being had for excellence of work, ease of 

 draught, cheapness, etc., $100; for the best plough 

 that shall lay the sod on edge or obliquely, regard 

 being had to like qualities, $75." A trial, or competi- 

 tion in the field, was had at Worcester on Oct. 13, 



