152 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



the building, and the trustees reluctantly abandoned 

 their project. 



In 1870 Thomas Motley was chosen president of 

 the society, in place of George W. Lyman, who re- 

 signed after a service in that office of 13 years. In 

 1870 a premium of $1,000 was paid to B. Perley Poore 

 of Newbury for a plantation of forest trees. This 

 premium was offered in 1857, the conditions, in part, 

 being that the area must be at least five acres, the trees 

 of a wood used in shipbuilding, with one white oak for 

 every twenty square yards of ground, the award to 

 be made in 1870. In April, 1871, the trustees ordered 

 an importation of twelve English harrows, for use in 

 loosening the surface of grass land and pastures, and 

 breaking into fragments top-dressing, or other ferti- 

 lizing material, thereupon. In August, an exhibition of 

 the apparatus was made before the trustees, at a farm 

 in Brookline, and it received, promptly, the official 

 approval and recommendation. At the same meeting 

 in August, a paper was read describing the appearance 

 and habits of the potato bug, or Colorado beetle, and 

 giving account of its ravages in some places, with sug- 

 gestion of remedial measures. It was ordered to be 

 printed and distributed at once for the information of 

 farmers in this State. 



In 1872 was received the amount of a bequest to the 

 society by Francois Andre Michaux of Versailles, 

 France, a net sum of $7,807.67. He was an eminent 

 scientist who gave his attention chiefly to botany and 

 related subjects. He visited this country first in 1785, 

 with his father, Andre Michaux, who was of equal 

 eminence as a botanist. His second visit was in 1801, 

 when he carried to completion certain investigations 

 and experiments which his father had begun. He came 

 again in 1806 and made an exploration of the whole 



