248 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



value, and think that if less were raised for that purpose, there 

 would be no real loss, and perhaps some decided gain. 



The deficiency of Scientific Information in the Agricultural 

 Community, and the need of its being supplied. 



[An address, delivered before the Agricultural Societies of Hampshire, Frank- 

 lin and Hampden Counties, at their Anniversary Fairs, in Springfield and in 

 Northampton, in October, 1847, by Charles Upham Shephard, Massacfaisetls 

 Prof, of Chemistry and Nat. History in Amherst College, and Prof, of Chemis- 

 try in the Medical College of South Carolina.] 



It would be difficult, perhaps, to single out any association 

 connected with the business of life, that has surpassed the Agri- 

 cultural Society in usefulness to mankind. Its origin and office 

 are easily understood. It is a natural growth from that friendly 

 intercourse existing between persons engaged in this noblest of 

 all arts. In place of the " no admittance," so commonly placarded 

 over the doors of workshops and mills, it has happily ever been 

 the interest and the custom of the farmer, to invite his neighbor, 

 and the stranger even / to a free survey of his acres. His would 

 seem to be a pursuit too ennobled of heaven to give countenance 

 to secrets and patents. He rears no barriers to conceal his 

 crops ; he employs no private nostrums for enriching his soil- 

 All is open and above-board, like the clear canopy of day, be- 

 neath which his labors are conducted. Instead of hindering 

 any man, whose object is information, from crossing his fields, 

 he is ever ready to become his conductor, and to explain to him 

 the details of his success : nor does he covet a prouder reward, 

 than to find his example, in some particular, deemed worthy of 

 imitation. 



The Agricultural Society is merely an expansion of this un- 

 selfish intercourse among farmers, in which the men of remoter 

 neighborhoods seek to become acquainted with one another, to 

 compare ideas on a wider range of topics, and in which they 

 carry the generous emulation excited, to its highest pitch, by 

 yearly exhibitions of their products and skill. The compara- 



