1P53. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



135 



The vines are easily obtained if wanted, of either 

 the hirge pale kinds, the oval, or the round or flat 

 kind, which is mucli the richest, as well as the 

 greatest bearer with us, and of a dark red color. 



S. A. SllURTLEFF. 



Spring Grove, Jan., 1853. 



UNITED STATES AGRICUliTURAL 



SOCIETY. 



The First Annual Meeting of the United States 

 Agricultural Society was holden at Washington, 

 on the 2d of February 1853, at 10 o'clock, in the 

 Lecture Room of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The meeting was called to orber by the Presi- 

 dent of the Society, Marshall P. Wilder, Esq., of 

 Massachusetts. 



Tlie States and Territories of the Union were 

 called in the usual order, and members present 

 gave in their names. It was found that mem- 

 bers from the following States and Territories 

 were present, viz.. New Hampshire, INIassachu- 

 setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 

 ginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, AVisconsin, 

 the District of Columbia and Minnesota. 



The Chair requested that all reports from State 

 Societies to this Society be sent to the Correspond- 

 ing Secretary. 



Prof. Mapes, of New Jersey presented speci- 

 mens of the Japan pea, an account of which we 

 have recently given, as it was presented at the 

 State Board of Agriculture, on the 25th January. 



The President then delivered his annual address. 

 It represented the prospects of the Society to be 

 highly flattering ; such as should inspire every 

 member with encouragement, and a determina- 

 tion to do all he can towards the furtherance of 

 the great ends of the association. It alluded suc- 

 cessively to the subject of the appointment of 

 members of the National Board of Agriculture ; 

 the printing and publication of the Journal of the 

 Society, the first of which, consisting of 14-4 octavo 

 pages, is already in the hands of most of the 

 members, and a second will be shortly issued ; the 

 opening of correspondence and co-operation with 

 distinguished agriculturists and local associations 

 all over the United States, which the President 

 thinks should be extended even to trans-atlantic 

 nations, and the assistance of the General Govern 

 ment solicited in regard to it. 



The address acknowledges the advantages at- 

 tending the central location of the headquarters 

 of the Society in Washington, and notices in hand- 

 some terms the courtesy of the Directory of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in granting to the Society 

 the free use of their hall. The Society, must how- 

 ever, look around and secure the permanent use of 

 a public building or offices in some existing edifice 

 for the Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, for 

 the preservation of the records and of the agricul- 

 tural seeds and products which are now or may be 



hereafter acquired, and also for an agricultural 

 ibrary, museum, and cabinet. 



It will be necessary soon to employ a perma- 

 nent Secretary with a salary, whose time and tal- 

 ents will be wholly devoted to the interests and 

 business of the Society. The Treasurer, also, will 

 have to be suitably compensated. 



The President submits whether, for the pay- 

 ment of officers, the printing and publication of 

 the journals and transactions, postage, and other 

 necessary and contingent expenses », some aid may 

 not be obtained from Government — 



"Either," says Mr. Wilder, "as a grant in furth- 

 erance of our objects, on the same general principle 

 as many of the State Governments bestow their pat- 

 ronage upon the agricultural societies within their 

 territorial limits, or, if Government would so direct, 

 as a consideration for the performance by this Soci- 

 ety of the duties of the Agricultural Department of 

 the Patent Office. 



"The sum now expended by Government in that 

 branch of the Department, if placed at the disposal 

 of this Society, would enable us to collect, through our 

 auxiliaries and corresponding bodies, the most reli- 

 able statistics and the most recent and valuable in- 

 formation, and would also enable us to publish the 

 same and to distribute it, through the members of 

 this Society, and of the hundreds of kindred local 

 associations acting in concert with us throughout the 

 country. ' ' 



In the course of allusion to what has been and 

 might be done for the Society by private munifi- 

 cence, the President stated that — 



"A gentleman of fortune, Hon. Samuel Appleton, 

 of Boston, whose name is honorably associated with 

 various philanthropic and charitable enterprises of 

 our age and nation, has the honor of commencing 

 worthy action in our behalf by a donation of one 

 thousand dollars. Several other distinguished gen- 

 tlemen have subscribed liberally to our funds, in the 

 form either of donation or of life-memberships, a de- 

 tailed statement of which will hereafter be submitted 

 and published in the Society's transactions." 



The following are the concluding sentences of 

 the President's Address : — 



"A brighter day has begun to dawn. It is within 

 the recollection of many that the first Agricultural 

 Society was organized in the United States ; indeed, 

 it is not fifty years since the establishment of the 

 Horticultural Society of London, the first institution 

 of the kind in the world. This was soon followed by 

 kindred associations in France, Pennsylvania, Mas- 

 sachusetts and other places. Agricultural and Hor- 

 ticultural Societies, and Farmer's Clubs, spring up 

 as by enchantment throughout our country, all zeal- 

 ously engaging in the work of improvement. 



While we rejoice in these favorable indications, 

 and in the cheering prospects before us, we are re- 

 minded by the absence of those whom we have been 

 wont to meet on similar occasion, that the Destroy- 

 er has been among us. They involuntarily rise up 

 before us, and their valuable services claim our 

 'grateful remembrance. AVhen we were last assem- 

 bled in this city, the 'Farmer of Ashland' lay upon 

 the bed of death, and has since been borne with dis- 

 tinguished funeral honors, amidst a nation's sorrow, 

 fir hence to the sepulcher of his fathers. 



The great Landscape Gardener and Rural Archi- 

 tect of America, upon whose genius the goverment 

 depended for the laying out and adornment of the 



