THE FAKMEllS' KKyiSi'KU 



19 



in your paper ol' ihe Sih on ihe same euliject ; but 

 as mine is somewhai diHoitiii, and as I have had 

 a good deal ol experience in desiroyinir slugs, you 

 will perliaps insert ii. I am, Sir, 



Ak Ootogk\auian Gaudkkeu. 

 Romsey, Nov. Ui!i, 1841. 



I'LAN AND CONSTITUTION OF A WOniCING 

 AGKlCULTUriAL, SOCIETY. 



We have often, in the course of this publica- 

 tion, expressed a very iiigh estinialion ol" what 

 would be the uselulness and value ol' agri(;uliurai 

 societies, il' properly eonsliluled and profierly ope- 

 raling; and also our low actual esiinmie ol the 

 value ol' nearly all the agricultural societies exist- 

 ing in Virginia, or of the greater number which 

 have ceased to exist. We shall not here repeat 

 what has been so fully said, and so often adverted 

 to before; but if any reader desires to know more 

 of our views on this subject, he is relerred e:}\)ti- 

 cially to pages 200, vol. i., 705, vol. vi., and 39, 

 vol. viii., It it enough here to say generally, that 

 the radical defect of all known agricultural socie- 

 ties is that they do not work to Ibrward their de- 

 signated end — but merely utter and hear formal 

 speeches and addresses, which, from the very na- 

 ture of the case, are necessarily too general in 

 iheir scope to present much of particular lacts, or 

 to be of any particular value. 



For an agricultural society to be truly and 

 greatly useful, its main operation ought to be to 

 induce the making and reporting of as many as 

 possible of accurate experiments in practical agri- 

 culture. This is a service which any person ol 

 ordinary intelligence can perform, who will give 

 merely a little lime and trouble Ibr the pur- 

 pose. If only some one trivial but useful fact 

 were established thus by careful experiment and 

 accurate report, by each one of some twenty or 

 thirty members of a society, the mass of know- 

 ledge thus elicited and collected in a single yenr, 

 would be of more value than all the results of ; It 

 the mere address-making societies that have \i! 

 existed. But, of far greater value would be the 

 subsequent and continued results, ol as many ex- 

 periments, or more probably ten times as many, 

 performed by the society every successive year. 

 Extend the view to 50 or 100 similarly working 

 county societies, each producing as many useful 

 truths, and the results of |he labors of each society 

 and individual extended, by exchange and publi- 

 cation, to all the others, and the general and cer- 

 tain benefit in diffusion of agricultural knowledge 

 would exceed our present powers of conception) 

 founded on the usual profitless action of agricultu- 

 ral societies. It would be a great system of mu- 



tual instruction bs' cxperiinen's ;uid by lads, in- 

 stead of by loose guessing and looser assertion, 

 without any thing thai deserves the name of ex- 

 periinenia! truths or philosophical investigation. 



The Board of Agriculture has recommended 

 the (brmaiion of working county agricultural soci- 

 eties, and htis ordered that the ellurts of its mem- 

 bers shall be given in aid of (hat object. We 

 have iherelbre presumed to submit the Ibregoing 

 remarks, and shall oiler below a form of constitu- 

 tion for a county agricultural society which seenis 

 to iisilikely (o direct effort to proper ;ind profitable 

 oljeels. While no ysual or other modes of proce- 

 dure, are forbidilen, the proposed constitution re- 

 quires that a sufficient portion of the duties of the 

 ininibers shall be directed to the only certain 

 nioJe of obtaining truth — the making and re- 

 porting of accurate experinienis. In nearly all 

 other respecis, tl;e plan is merely one ol form or 

 rouiine, which has tic j-eculiar merit, and may be 

 changed or sulistituled, perhaps to advantage, by 

 any new society which may approve and adopt 

 the principle and ihe essential part ol the plan. We 

 have thought it best, however, to submit a draught 

 of an entire constitution, as it may at least serve 

 as a ground-work Ibr amendment, and thereby 

 save some trouble in Ibrming a new society. t-Ed. 

 F. R. 



Proposed plan of Constitution. 



The Agricultural Society of is instituted 



(or the |iurpose of promoting the improvement ol' 

 agriculture, and esjjecinlly to seek that end by in- 

 ducing the making and rejiorting of carelul and 

 accurate experiments, lorascertainingdoubtlul, dis- 

 puted, or new and usel'ul facts in scientific or prac- 

 tical agriculture. 



1. The society shall be composed of such per- 

 sons as bhall sign litis constitution, and pay such 

 cori'ribulions as may be required by its provisions. 



2. The society shall have one general meeting 

 in each year, which, uniil altered, shall be held at 



on the — of and such, special 



meetinas as may be called by proper authority. 



3. The officers shall be a |jresidenl, secretar)-', 

 and treasurer, and lour other members of the exe- 

 cutive committee, the three lormer being niembeis 

 exq^ciool that commiitee ; all lo be elected by the 

 annual general meeting, and to serve for one year, 

 or until another election shall be made. 



4. It shall be within the power and duly of the 

 executive committee to order all iliings properly in 

 luriherance of the otjects ol the society, and with- 

 in \ls me-dfis ; provided that such action of the exe- 

 cutive committee shall iioi extend to cases pro- 

 vided Ibr by the vole and action of the society, and 

 thall never oppose any action or resolution of the 

 society. 



5. 'J'he president, secretary, and treasuier shall 

 have the powers and perform ihe several duties 

 implied by the names ol their offices, and both lor 

 the society and Ibr the executive committee, of 

 which they are members ex officio. 



