386 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



is to say generally, and among those who have the direction of the labor and" 

 capital at work in the field. We should doubt, indeed, whether, in any part of 

 the world, agricultural operations are conducted on so large a scale — we might, 

 perhaps, say on any scale — with more skill, neatness and completeness, than, for 

 example, and from what we have heard, on Colonel Singleton's and Mr. Cal- 

 houn's estates ; and, from what we have seen, on Colonel Hampton's ; and, with- 

 out intending to be invidious, we may add, at Hopeton, near Darien, Georgia, 

 by Mr. I. Hamilton Couper, where thirty thousand dollars' worth of steam and 

 other machinery employed in the various processes of flooding and draining, 

 and of cleaning and preparing the various crops for market, demands not only 

 practical knowledge of ordinary performances in the field, but no inconsider- 

 able acquaintance with book-keepmg, hydraulics, civil engineering, and even 

 agricultural chemistry — as far particularly as relates to the complex process 

 of sugar making. Nor are such capital and means to be conducted to their 

 fullest development without a decided talent for the command and appropria- 

 tion of the forces at hand — sometimes to be employed in combination, accord- 

 ing to the exigencies of the season and the crops ; and again to be divided, and 

 so separately applied as to make everything tell to the greatest advantage. — 

 Such estates may, it is true, fall occasionally under the control of men without 

 ambition, knowledge, forecast, or energy ; but they are not to be profitably and 

 honorably managed without the possession of all these qualities, and that in no 

 ordinary degree. But to our subject. 



The " Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture," the first in the 

 State of its kind, was founded and incorporated as far back as 1792. It raised a 

 fund of $4,000 by subscription ; and by an annual assessment on its members it 

 proceeded at once to distribute premiums and to import valuable anknals. In 

 1797, it instituted its " Journal,'''' which was continued for more than thirty years, 

 promulgating papers that evinced remarkable ability, and a public spirit and dis- 

 interestedness highly honorable to its members. It took measures, also, for the 

 establishment of County Societies, and for the erection of an Agricultural Hall. 

 It also contributed to the establishment of the Professorship of Natural History 

 and of the Botanical Garden at Cambridge. 



In 1819, the State appropriated $200 annually to every Society which would 

 raise $1,000 for the promotion of Agriculture, and in like proportion for any 

 o-reater sum, not exceeding $3,000 ; so that no Society, whatever may be the 

 amount of its funds, can claim of the Commonwealth more than $600. From 

 the date above mentioned to 1845 inclusive, as appears by the " Abstract" from 

 which this statement is taken, there had been ten Societies incorporated, to 

 which the State had contributed $115,816 61 ; besides three others, which, at 

 the date of the Abstract, were " not known to have gone into operation." 



In 1837, Resolves were passed by tbe Legislature, authorizing and requesting 

 the Governor to appoint some suitable person to make an " agricultural survey 

 of the Commonwealth ; collect accurate infoimation of the state and condition 

 of its An'riculture, and every subject connected with it ; point out the means of 

 improvement, and make a detailed report thereof, with as much exactness as cir- 

 cumstances will admit." 



Writin'T now from home, and not in reach of our books, we can only venture 

 the impression that this enlightened measure on the part of the Legislature was 

 enacted in conformity with a suggestion from Gov. Everett, now the accom- 

 plished President of Cambridge. It would be well for the country, and promis- 

 (81 a) 



