Preface. v 



benefit, are as worthless, whilst thus hoarded or avariciously 

 turned; as the beads, trinkets, and baubles, with which sava- 

 ges gratify their rude and childish propensities. Such stores 

 of useless wealth their sordid possessors must leave behind 

 them ; without a vestige of public-spirited employment of it, 

 to embalm and perpetuate their memory. 



Actuated by the motives which, at first, induced us to form 

 our association, we now present to our agricultural, and all 

 our fellow-citizens, our Fourth Volume of Memoirs. 

 It is not to be expected that any thing more than unconnect- 

 ed, and often crude, materials for forming regular systems, 

 or treatises, can appear in such collections. We flatter our- 

 selves, however, that it will be found at least equal to our 

 former publications ; and receive the candid indulgence; with 

 which our preceding volumes have been treated. 



