422 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



One point is noticeable in these essays, showing the results 

 of a change of condition. Instead of building dykes to 

 keep the salt water out, an owner of land dug ditches to let 

 the salt water in, for the })urpose of enhancing the value of 

 his land. 



In 1760 Mr. Bakewell began improvements in the breed- 

 ing of cattle, commencing with the long-horns, and to him 

 we are also indebted for the perfection of a new race of 

 sheep, at that time called the Leicester. He also made 

 great improvements in certain products of the soil, and with 

 such success that some farmers from a distance made appli- 

 cation in disguise to him for employment, for the purpose 

 of learning the secret of his success. They were accepted, 

 and continued with him only until they had acquired his 

 methods. Although improvements in this country were 

 checked during the revolutionary war, at its termination 

 the improvements in certain departments of agriculture, 

 especially in live stock, were very rapid, and have culmi- 

 nated in the high degree of i)erfection which we have at the 

 present time. 



The earliest agricultural society we find mentioned in 

 Enii'land was organized in 1777, and was called the Bath or 

 West of England Society. This society seems to have been 

 organized during a period of war, but, as the war was so 

 far away, the agricultural interest at home would naturally 

 be somewhat improved. The first agricultural society in 

 this country was at Philadelphia, in 1785, eight years later 

 than the first society in England. The next was the High- 

 land Society, in Scotland, instituted in 1785, and the Na- 

 tional Board of Agriculture was formed in 171)3. The next 

 in this country were the Massachusetts Society for Promoting 

 Airriculture, at Boston in 171)2, and one at New York in the 

 same year. These were the societies organized })revi()us to 

 the nineteenth century, and, although England had been 

 settled for something over seventeen centuries, and this 

 country only about a century and a half, they are found to 

 be nearly contemi)oraneous with each other in the organiza- 

 tion of the early societies. History shows that civilization is 

 the cause of the formation and development of the agricult- 

 ural society, and that improvements in agriculture can be 



