XXiV AN ADDRESS, &C. 



ing aside their accustomed practices in which they have 

 been educated, with the results of which they are acquaint- 

 ed, and equal caution in the adoption of new or untried 

 modes, are nevertheless exceeded by none in a similar em- 

 ployment in any country, for sound sense, intellectual intel- 

 ligence, enterprize. and freedom from prejudice, (the source 

 and basis of all rational improvement,) or can more clearly 

 convey their ideas in conversation; but like the farmers in 

 other countries, they discover an unwillingness either to take 

 the trouble to commit facts to paper, or to appear as au- 

 thors; but this reluctance it is to be hoped will be overcome, 

 when they reflect that in no other way can the business of 

 their lives he improved; that their remarks may call forth 

 those of others, from which they themselves may derive 

 instruction; and lastly, that they are writing to friends, who 

 will gladly receive their letters, and make the best use of 

 them for the promotion of the objects for which they write, 

 and we arc associa ted With the view of giving out agricul- 

 tural fellow- citizens an opportunity of making notes of such 

 occurrences as may likely to be useful, and of diffusing in- 

 formation, the society have encouraged the publication of 

 an agricultural almanac in Philadelphia, which I am happy 

 to hear has met with a sale that emboldens their continua- 

 tion in future years. 



The advantages resulting from insuring farm houses and 

 farm buildings from loss by fire, so far exceed the trifling 

 amount of the premium paid to the officers, that I cannot 

 omit the opportunity of warmly urging the adoption of the 

 measure. Scarcely a year passes without some serious 

 conflagrations taking place in our state, either of houses or 

 barns, and when the latter are burnt, the loss is often con- 

 siderable. The practice of thatching barns, which is too 

 common in the interior of Pennsylvania, ought to be dis. 



