258 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The late Charles L. Flint, for so many years the secretary 

 of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, in his 

 twenty-first annual report (1873) included a paper on "A 

 hundred years' progress of American agriculture." In this 

 paper, speaking of our agricultural literature, he said : — 



The permanent agricultural literature of the country, now so 

 extensive and so creditable, has grown up, for the most part, 

 within the last twenty years. A few books of a ffigh character 

 appeared, from time to time, forty or fifty years ago, . . . but a 

 large pi'oportion of the farmer's reading, previous to 1850, con- 

 sisted of English works, many of which were reprinted in this 

 country. Since that date American treatises, in the highest 

 degree instructive and useful, have appeared, and we have works 

 upon landscape-gardening, fruits, animals, dairy-farming, drain- 

 age, and, in fact, upon subjects covering the whole range of farm 

 economy, many of them of unexceptionable literary merit in point 

 of style, finish and perfection, and the results of accurate scien- 

 tific research. To bring the facilities for improvement within the 

 easy reach of the largest number of people, the system of town- 

 ship and district libraries was first initiated by the State of New 

 York, in 1837. . . . This example was followed by Massachusetts 

 in 1839. . . . Indiana adopted the same policy in 1854, Ohio in 

 1857. . . . At the same time most of the States early adopted the 

 plan of publishing and distributing large numbers of documents 

 upon agriculture, gratuitously, among the people. These docu- 

 ments are, many of them, of high merit, containing the most recent 

 scientific investigations, reports of experiments, and the observa- 

 tions of the most experienced practical men. 



It may be added, in passing, that all of our experiment 

 station literature, most of the publications of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, and most of the reports 

 of boards and societies organized to carry on certain lines 

 of work pertaining to agriculture, horticulture and kindred 

 sciences, are the product of the past quarter of a century. 

 What progress since Mr. Flint penned the lines quoted 

 above ! An examination of the appended catalogue of the 

 library of this Board will reveal much of this progress, which 

 indeed has been truly wonderful. 



During the past few years frequent requests have been 

 made by institutions of various kinds, and by individuals, 



