14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of Agriculture. Thus a new and independent system of opera- 

 tions was established, whereby the Secretary became the chief 

 officer and organ of the Board, on whom has devolved ever since 

 the duty of digesting the returns of the societies and of prepar- 

 ing the annual volume of the department. 



This annual volume embraces a most complete and perfect 

 system of reports, containing abstracts of the various statements 

 and experience of the best cultivators from all parts of the 

 Commonwealth. It also contains the essays and reports of the 

 Secretary, and the reports of special committees on special sub- 

 jects. These volumes, embracing a period of twenty years, 

 constitute a storehouse of information, in fact a comprehensive 

 library, embracing almost every subject in agriculture, and they 

 are eagerly sought after throughout the Commonwealth and 

 country. When the Board was established, scarcely three thou- 

 sand copies of the Report were required to supply the demand, 

 and, in fact, less than two thousand copies had been previously 

 called for ; now, ten thousand copies are found to be insufficient 

 to meet applications. The circulation of these Reports created 

 also a wide-spread interest in other States, in regard to the 

 organization and operations of the Board and the general agri- 

 cultural system of the State. In fact, the Boards of Agriculture 

 in the New England and other States are generally founded and 

 modelled on that of Massachusetts, and to this very day the 

 Secretary has applications from the executives of the newer 

 States for our code of operations, and we believe that the great 

 increase in the circulation of agricultural papers and docu- 

 ments may have arisen, in part, from the labors of the Board 

 in creating a greater spirit of inquiry and enterprise in regard 

 to agricultural matters. 



The Massachusetts Board has always been composed of a body 

 of earnest, intelligent, progressive men, — men who have given 

 their time, their services, and best thoughts without compensa- 

 tion or hope of reward, except such as may come from the con- 

 sciousness of duty well performed and of benefits conferred for 

 the public good, and it may, without fear of reproach, ask to 

 be judged by its proceedings. 



The wide-spread interest in the breeding of pure stock is a 

 striking instance; and, while contributing largely to this, it has 

 at the same time greatly promoted and facilitated tlie diffusion 



