1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 289 



Any ten or more persons, iu any county, town, or city within the 

 state, who shall, by agreement in writing, associate for the pur- 

 pose of encouraging agriculture, horticulture, or improving and 

 ornamenting the streets and public squares of any city or town, by 

 planting and cultivating ornamental trees therein, may become a 

 corporation by such nam3 as they shall assume therefor, by calling 

 their first meeting, and being organized in the manner provided in 

 the forty-first chapter of the Revised Statutes, for the incorporatioa 

 of the proprietors of social libraiies and lyceums, and every sucli 

 association, upon becoming a corporation as aforesaid, shall have, 

 during the pleasure of the legislature, all the like rights, powers, 

 and privileges as the proprietors of such libraries, and may hold 

 real and personal estate, not exceeding ten thousand dollars. 



This act, drafted by the Speaker, who participated in the 

 general opposition to chartering more societies to receive aid 

 from the State, was reported by the committee on agriculture 

 to the House, and became a law. It was supposed this 

 would meet all the demands for aijricultural societies. This 

 Legislature voiced the sentiments of the people towards 

 institutions of this character. The antipathy against what 

 was termed " book farming" was very strong. Those who 

 advocated the benefits of applying agricultural science to 

 practical agriculture, were ridiculed, called visionary the- 

 orists, with Utopian ideas of farming. Many farmers were 

 so deeply imbedded in the old ruts of* prejudice, as to refuse 

 to avail themselves for a long time of the benefits of im- 

 proved farming implements, illustrating the truth of what 

 Henry Clay said many years ago, in one of his speeches on 

 the tariff : — 



In one respect there is a great difference in favor of manufact- 

 ures, when compared with agriculture : it is the avidity with which 

 the whole manufacturing community avail themselves of an 

 improvement. It is instantly communicated and put in operation. 

 There is an avidity for improvement iu the one system, an aversion 

 from it in the other. Tlie habits of generation after generation 

 pass down the long track of time in perpetual succession, without 

 the slightest change in agriculture. The ploughman who fastens 

 his plough to the tails of his cattle, will not own that there is any 

 other mode equal to his. An agricultural people will be iu the 

 neighborhood of other communities who have made the greatest 

 progress in husbandry, without advancing in the slightest degree. 



