390 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SUGGESTIONS RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



The Board of Agriculture may be considered as the guard- 

 ian of the agricultural interests of the Commonwealth. Its 

 powers, perhaps, are not large, but by virtue of its position 

 and the prestige of emiuent persons laborious in its behalf, 

 who have adorned its councils, it has large responsibility. 

 Composed, in great part, of represeutatives of the chartered 

 agricultural societies of the State, each presiding over its own 

 section of country, and admitted to be the most influential form 

 of associated effort, at present devoted to the improvement 

 of the agriculture of such section, — is it not worthy of the 

 attention of the Board to consider how these local agencies 

 may be made to meet more perfectly the ends for which they 

 exist ? 



It seems to me the Board can do no greater service to our 

 agriculture than by making itself felt in these societies. In 

 saying this I would not be understood as favoring a policy of 

 control ; a deprivation of liberty, in most instances, Avould 

 be injurious, and I would allow to the societies the same free- 

 dom of which they are now possessed, for from it spring 

 originality and strength. Without imposing restrictions, the 

 Board can exercise an influence more far-reaching than comes 

 of such action. It is the individual rather than the society 

 that is to be touched. The latter will not rise above the 

 individual ; the quality of a society will be as the quality of 

 a fair averao-e of its workinsr members. 



The great need is information and thought. The Board 

 can do something to supply the information, and this is a 

 good seed-bed for thought. 



Consider the diverse character of the thirty-one agricultural 

 societies. The highest is below what the lowest should be, 

 and the lowest is below the level where it can render good 

 service. Some of the smaller societies, perhaps, are pursuing 

 practices that others have outgrowai. Experiments are on 

 trial that have already been tried and rejected. It is a waste 

 of force to repeat the same in the different societies. There is 

 no such relation of the societies as to prevent this. The best, 

 apart and unbeknown, exerts not its proper corrective or stim- 

 ulating effect upon others. Should its example be felt, it is 



