346 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



most patriotic, prudent and respected citizens of their day, 

 whose record is not only perpetuated on the books, but in 

 the streets, places, buildings and public institutions of this 

 our capital ; and of many of them their memory is kept 

 everlastingly green in the names of various beautiful towns 

 through the Commonwealth. They commenced with a sub- 

 scription among themselves of four thousand dollars, — a 

 liberal sum for those days. Since, by annual assessments, 

 by legacies and donations, the society has accumulated a 

 large sum, the interest of which has from the first been ex- 

 pended by them for the benefit of the farmers of the Com- 

 monwealth, for whom it has done more than any other 

 society, or than aH combined. 



In 1797 it instituted the " Agricultural Journal," a publi- 

 cation continued more than thirty years. It took measures 

 for the institution of county societies, and erected a hall at 

 Brighton for the exhibition of domestic and agricultural 

 I)roducts. It contributed to the establishment of the pro- 

 fessorship of natural history and of the botanical garden in 

 the University at Cambridge. It originated a series of ad- 

 dresses at agricultural exhibitions, from the most eminent 

 men, which were published and distributed with great effect 

 and influence. It paid handsome premiums for essays on 

 agriculture, and for experiments, and for successful crops 

 and how to grow them. It imported and distributed through 

 the Commonwealth the first of the finest breeds of all our 

 best domesticated animals, vastly to the improvement of our 

 stock, and help to the farmers. 



The Berkshire County Agricultural Society, incorporated 

 in 1811, was the next, and held, at Pittsfield, the first cattle 

 show in this country, in 1814. The Society of Middlesex 

 Husbandmen, started in 1803, was incorporated in 1820 ; 

 then followed the Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin, the 

 Worcester and the Essex, in 1818. 



An Act of 1819 appropriated two hundred dollars annually 

 to every society which should raise the sum of one thou- 

 sand dollars for the promotion of agriculture, and in like 

 proportion for any greater sum, not exceeding three 

 thousand dollars. Since then, so great has been the interest 

 in agriculture, and so liberal the State in continuing its 



