846 AGEICULTURE AND THE HORSE. 



entertained. It is probable that an interchange of 

 thought among the men of New England had its charms 

 for many, especially for that large class of agricultural 

 debaters who will not, under any circumstances, allow 

 any question to be definitely settled. There were those 

 who looked forward to the publication of an elaborate, 

 well-prepared, scientific periodical of agricultural litera- 

 ture, in which the most accurate deductions and laws 

 might be found. An enlarged acquaintance among 

 the farmers of New England, a better knowledge of 

 the various modes of agriculture adopted by them, a 

 kind association with each other superior to all differ- 

 ences of opinion, had great temptations, and were 

 full of pleasing promise to many. Those gentlemen 

 who represented the agriculture of Maine were rejoiced 

 to bring their observations upon the horses and grass- 

 lands and cattle and potato-patches of that State into 

 a wider field : and as they enlarged upon what they 

 had done, and were doing, along their varied seashore, 

 and in the valleys of the Kennebec and Penobscot and 

 Sandy Hivers, they listened with intense interest to 

 the wise discourse of the merino -kings of Vermont 

 upon the subject of sheep-husbandry ; and to the views 

 of the tobacco-growers and market-gardeners and fruit- 

 raisers of Massachusetts upon the best methods of 

 wringing from the soil the largest and most profitable 

 crops ; and to the discussion of the herdsmen of Rhode 

 Island and Connecticut upon the comparative merits 

 of their Short-horns and Devons and Ayrshires; and 



