68 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



And our legislatures, not unmindful of tlie duty imposed 

 upon them by the Constitution of our State, have, from time to 

 time, with a liberal hand that withlioldeth not, appropriated 

 large sums of money to promote the interests, and for the 

 benefit of the farmer they have founded and encouraged 

 various agricultural societies in all parts of the State, and have 

 granted annually no inconsiderable sums of money for the 

 purpose of promoting the objects of these associations. And 

 as a proof that these societies of the farmers have been condu- 

 cive to the best interests of the people, that the money thus 

 appropriated has been properly expended in carrying out 

 a part of the wise policy of our legislatures, which has made 

 Massachusetts the "• Model Productive State," we have only to 

 compare the farming and the farmer of tlie year 1800, with the 

 farmer and the farming of the year 1863. In tlie year 1800, 

 much of the soil of this State was comparatively new, in its 

 pristine power and vigor, enriched by the decay of organic 

 matter, by the decay of the primitive forests, by annual vegeta- 

 tion, and tlie animal remains of numberless ages; and had it 

 then been tilled by the hand of the intelligent, scientific, 

 practical book farmer of the present day, no human mind can 

 adequately estimate the benefits which during the last fifty 

 years would have been conferred upon the people of tliis 

 Commonwealth. 



In tlie year 1800, the sun of agricultural science had not 

 risen — the dusky gray of its morning was but dimly seen. 

 Some of the statesmen of our country were eagerly looking 

 for and expecting its rise and progress ; others were indifferent 

 — thought little and cared less. The recommendation of the 

 first president of this republic to Congress, urging the " advance- 

 ment of agriculture," remains unnoticed — no action had been 

 taken upon it. Adams on his farm at Q\iincy, Jefferson on his 

 farm at Monticello, both of whom, knowing the importance of 

 agriculture, being ardently devoted to its interests, had by the 

 few cautious experiments tried by them, begun to see dimly, 

 the rising luminary of the coming century ; but the common 

 farmer with no more than ordinary advantages, was then in 

 midnight darkness. With no agricultural books, papers or 

 periodicals, with but little if any reading matter devoted to his 



