308 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



formed for mutual improvement, and in the benevo- 

 . 'lit and patriotic desire to do a public good ; to 

 stimulate and reward industry and enterprise, how- 

 fiver humble their condition ; and if it strive, by con- 

 centrated and persevering efforts, to improve the 

 condition of a district, of a county, or a state, then 

 will it inspire public confidence, obtain public sup- 

 port, and become a public blessing. To illustrate 

 this last proposition, I beg to refer to some associa- 

 tions which have been tried, and whose labours have 

 been crowned with palpable and brilliant success. 



The counties of Berkshire, Essex, and Worcester 

 in Massachusetts, have each, for many years, main- 

 tained an agricultural society ; and they each dis- 

 tribute ten or twelve hundred dollars a year, one 

 half of which is paid out of the state treasury, in 

 prizes to successful competitors in the various de- 

 partments of agricultural and household labour. It 

 is said, and I believe with truth, that every dollar 

 thus expended has made a return of twenty dollars 

 in the increase of agricultural products which it has 

 caused ; and so satisfied are the inhabitants of the 

 benefits of the expenditure, that an increased spirit 

 is annually manifested by all classes to maintain 

 and perpetuate these nurseries of industry and im- 

 provement. 



The Highland Society of Scotland affords another 

 illustrious example of the utility of agricultural as- 

 sociations, when conducted with a view to public 

 improvement. This society was organized in 1784 ; 

 but so few were its members and so limited its 

 means, that it attracted but little public notice, nor 

 effected any great improvement in husbandry till 

 the commencement of the nineteenth century. Yet 

 it had sown the good seed, which never fails, under 

 proper management, to yield to the husbandman a 

 bountiful harvest. Nor did it fail in this case. The 

 society now numbers twenty-two hundred members, 

 embracing most of the opulent and influential men 



