388 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



others, of Carolina ; and Peters and Biddle, of Pennsylvania ; and Livingston, 

 and L'Homraedieu, and Ruffin, and Mitchell, of New- York ; and Lowell, and 

 Quincy, Sullivan, Colman, Pickering, Gray, Harris, Dearborn, Everett, &c. of 

 Massachusetts — vire should still think it strange if there were not yet much to be 

 learned of both its practice and the sciences that make that practice more fruit- 

 ful, from the country and the descendants of such men as Newton, and Brindley, 

 and Napier, and Parkes, and Davy, and Watt, and Arkwright ; with the wealth 

 and munificence of a Coke or a Francis, to patronize genius, and to lead it, 

 through poverty and every difficulty, into activity and public usefulness, for the 

 benefit and glory of their country. 



But in all this, perhaps, we are wrong, and not sufficiently practical I With 

 some there is a vulgar belief, and with others an aff'ectation of it yet more dis- 

 gusting, that none can impart instruction in Agriculture except those who daily la- 

 bor at what they teach — as if Mr. Downing's sketches of cottage residences were 

 any the less elegant and tasty because he whose fine fancy designs them may 

 not be practically expert in the use of carpenter's tools. But once more back to 

 our subject. 



To aid those who may be honorably inclined to help along the good cause, and 

 whose number, we trust, is rapidly increasing, we published in the September 

 number of 1846 the laws now in force in Massachusetts relating to the subject. 

 We proceed, therefore, to give such view of the proceedings of the several Soci- 

 eties in that State as will place before the reader the results of competition, in 

 the several branches of her agricultural industry, together with such accounts 

 of the means employed to reach them as will, altogether, give something of a 

 picture of the whole husbandry of a State which, as before said, has attained un- 

 der great difficulties a degree of success worthy of emulation — one which has 

 won for her inhabitants the high reputation of bemg , a remarkably laborious, 

 skillful, thriving and intelligent people ; out of debt, and independent in their pri- 

 vate circumstances ; proud of their liberty, and ever ready and able to defend it. 

 And, after all, is it not by knowledge, and that virtue which is the sure fruit of ^ 

 hnoidcdge only, that any yeomanry can hope to reach and to maintain such a 

 condition ? If this republic is at this moment in any peril, it may be ascribed to 

 the want of sufficient and suitable education on the part of the owners and tillers 

 of the soil ! 



First, as to the Massachusetts {State) Agricultural Society proper — we have 

 shown in the number referred to, containing Mr. Phinnet's description of the 

 stock imported by it last year, how it was led to pretermit the offer of the. ordi- 

 nary premiums, and to reserve their funds for the importation of Ayrshire and 

 North Devon cattle. There it is expressly stated that " thousands of dollars have 

 ,been awarded in premiums for the best milch cows, during the last twenty years, 

 and, as appeared to the Trustees, to very little benefit." Indeed, Mr. Phinney, 

 whose statement appears to have had the sanction of the Trustees, says gener- 

 ally, as to the effect of these shows to promote improvement in the various 

 branches of husbandry, that they had for " many years devoted the income of the 

 Society's funds to premiums on the best cultivated farms, on the various kinds 

 of farm produce, farm stock, and such other objects as they believed best calcu- 

 lated to promote the interest of the great body of the farmers ;" and that " it 

 seemed to the Trustees that very little progress had been made, particularly in 

 the dairy stock of (he country." That whole paper is well worthy of re-perusal, 

 as the deliberate testimony of practical men of unsurpassed judgment, vouched 



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