FARMERS' REGISTER— AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



201 



A remarkable and notorious characteristic of 

 Virginians, is to commence tlie support of any good 

 and popular scheme, with vehement and overflow- 

 ing zeal — and having thus wasted our energy in 

 the outset, to become weary, relax our exertions, 

 and finally cease entirely to make them, by the 

 time they are most wanting. Yet perhaps the de- 

 liberate judgment of each individual is as much in 

 favor of the object, w hen he thus abandons its sup- 

 port, as when he first undertook, and gave all his 

 strength, to commence the operation. We act 

 more from feeling, than from reasoning. We 

 start forward to aid a good cause, as most of us 

 would rush to a joyous festival — and when the ex- 

 citement of pleasure is over, we as readily yield 

 to the reaction of feeling — the wearisomeness and 

 lassitude which always follow the pursuit and en- 

 joyment of mere pleasure. 



But besides this our national failing, which un- 

 fortunately affects all our public institutions, there 

 are other evils which press particularly on agri- 

 cultural societies, and are sufficient to destroy 

 tirst their usefulness, and next their very existence. 



When the formation of an agricultural society 

 is first proposed, there are plenty of members to 

 be obtained. Each is willing to give his name to 

 support the scheme ; and he is willing also to add 

 a little of his time, and a small contribution in mo- 

 ney. But very few think of becoming lourking 

 members , or oi doing any thing as individual cul- 

 tivators of the soil, to aid the object of tlie associ- 

 ation. They meet at the stated times for one or two 

 years — find that they have no communications to 

 hear — each thinks or declares that the society is 

 useless, and wonders tliat it should be so — and final- 

 ly, (and necessarily) it sinks into contempt and 

 dies, without even the little respect of a vote being 

 taken for its dissolution. Of all these perfectly 

 useless members, there may be scarcely one who 

 might not have rendered some service, by making 

 experiments or observations, and reporting the re- 

 sults : yet each one is kept silent and useless by 

 false shame, and the fear (if he should make the 

 attempt) of not being distinguished as an agricul- 

 tural writer. 



So much for the mass of private members. — 

 Next let us look to the officers, on whom much 

 more depends, to secure the usefulness and perma- 

 nency of the society. 



When a society is first formed, one of the most 

 aged, respectable, intelligent and popular members 

 •will of course be made the presiding and first ex- 

 ecutive officer, on whose zeal and energy, the suc- 

 cess of the scheme must mainly depend. Such a 

 man will generally be justly entitled to the love 

 and esteem of his fellow members — perhaps he 

 will stand equally high as a farmer, or as a man of 

 general and valuable acquirements. But if he 

 wants zeal and energy, (as must be expected of 

 most old men,) the highest other qualities will not 

 make up for these deficiencies After such an ap- 

 pointment, the high respectability and popularity 

 of the individual forbids a change — and if he should 

 prove an inefficient president, the society is soon 

 overlaid and destroyed by his worth and dignity. 

 The same observations apply, but with less force, 

 to all the other subordinate officers of a society. 



To avoid these causes of danger to new socie- 

 ties, I will respectfully propose to those who may 

 be their founders, a few innovations Avhich I think 

 will be found of use. 



Vol I.— 26 



I. Let the society be composed altogether of 

 working members : and to be sure of that object, 

 let no member be admitted, except he previously 

 presents some report in writing, (however concise, 

 or no matter how trivial the subject) of experiments 

 made, or facts observed. Scientific and profes- 

 sional men, in their departments, could perform 

 similar duties. Such a form of initiation would 

 compel every member to " break the ice ;" and 

 generally, nothing more is wanting, to prove to 

 them that they can do good service in this way to 

 agriculture, and with credit to themselves. Let 

 these reports which would be presented as claims 

 for admission, be always plain, simple and short, 

 and in manner and form not beyond the imita- 

 tion of any plain practical farmer. It would also 

 be proper to require afterwards of each member, 

 a small but certain amount of working service 

 every year — a^s for example, the making and re- 

 porting of one or more experiments on some doubt- 

 ful point in farming, or in any art or science con- 

 nected v/ith agricultural improvement. I do not 

 mean todiscourage the more general, speculative, 

 and argumentative essays which have heretofore 

 formed nearly all the communications to agricul- 

 tural societies: but these might be safely left to be 

 performed as voluntary duties. 



It may be objected that but few members would 

 be obtained if such preliminary and regular duties 

 were required. I think otherwise. Very few 

 v.'ould object to write in the manner proposed, if 

 if it was made a duty, instead of being altogether 

 voluntary, and if the performance was required of 

 all without exception. But even if only ten mem- 

 bers would unite on these terms, they would be 

 more useful, and do more credit to themselves, than 

 they could Vvitli one hundred more upon the ordi- 

 nary plan. 



II. Let the duties of officers be so fixed and de- 

 fined, as that the performance should be as litttle 

 as possible affected by their individual characters 

 and habits — and by a fixed rule, require rotation in 

 office, so that no officer shall serve two years in 

 succession. Almost any member, who has zeal 

 and activity, may fill well any office in a society — 

 and a year's service would be sufficient to show in 

 any a deficiency in those indispensable qualifica- 

 tions. 



If societies on something like this general plan 

 were spread through Virginia, incalculable bene- 

 fit to agriculture would be derived from thus insti- 

 tuting, accurately observing, reporting, and pub- 

 lishing hundreds of experiments, and ascertaining 

 numerous important facts, which can be made 

 known in no other v/ay. If only twenty individu- 

 als, composing a society, would make so small a 

 sacrifice as the duties would require, in as many as 

 twenty different counties — and means were adopted 

 to interchange communications, the result would 

 be that each member would have the benefit of the 

 labor of four hundred exjjerimenters and record- 

 ers of agricultural facts, or scientific observations. 

 Is not this an object worth seeking, and worth 

 ?(wrA/7!g' to obtain.'' But if the plan was properly 

 estimated, there might be ten thousand persons so 

 operating, and they, and all the farmers of the com- 

 monwealth, enjoying all the benefit to be derived 

 from combining all these many exertions of labor 

 and intellect. 



AN EX-MEMBER. 



Jabj 2ifh, 1833. 



