FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 127 



time to time, been added to its roll of membership. 

 Dr. Aaron Dexter, who was the president at the close 

 of the quarter century, in 181 7, was succeeded in office 

 in 1823 by John Lowell, son of John Lowell, the 

 charter member and president from 1796 to 1802. In 

 1828 Thomas L. Winthrop became the president. He 

 yet held the office at the date of his decease, in 1840. 

 This long-continued service, and his devotedness in it, 

 were recognized in suitable obituary resolutions, 

 which are contained in both the written and printed 

 records of the society. His successor, chosen in 1841, 

 was John Welles, a resident in Boston, for many years, 

 having a large farm in the adjoining town of Dor- 

 chester, and who subsequently carried on still more 

 extensive agricultural enterprises in that part of 

 Natick, which now commemorates his name, the town 

 of Wellesley. 



The society's second half-century begins very 

 modestly in the business record with a gift, in 1842, of 

 $100 to the agricultural society organized for the 

 three counties of Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin, 

 and a like sum to the Plymouth county society. A 

 premium was offered for the best model of a farmer's 

 daybook, by which was meant a blankbook, ruled and 

 arranged with printed headlines, for keeping a record 

 suitable for comparison respecting the planting, 

 growth and harvesting of crops and matters pertain- 

 ing to stock, the dairy, labor, etc. The intent, appar- 

 ently, was to enable the farmer to judge with accuracy 

 as to whether he was gaining or losing, improving or 

 retrograding, in each particular department, by com- 

 paring, under each head, one year with another, or 

 comparing with his neighbor who kept a book classi- 

 fied in like manner. One competitor appeared, but 



