406 - MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Resolved, 7. That the several county and local agricultural societies, (al- 

 ready the adopted children of the Commonwealth,) by their pioneer efforts in 

 diffusing useful knowledge among the people ; by their agency in arousing 

 and directing the energies of the farmer in the course of modern improvement, 

 and by tlie encouragement they offer to every worthy effort of agricultural skill 

 and industry, recommend themselves still more powerfully to the protection 

 and patronage of the Legislature. 



Resolved, 8. That the convention respectfully suggests to the Legislature 

 the propriety and expediency of reserving the entire proceeds of the sales of 

 the public lands of the Commonwealth, — from and after the period when the 

 Common School Fund shall have reached the maximum fixed by the act of 

 1834^ — for purposes of education and charity, with a view to extending that 

 aid and encouragement to a system of agricultural education, which the impor- 

 tance of the subject so imperiously demands. 



Upon motion of Mr. Sewall, the resolutions were taken up 

 in order, with the exception of those relating to agricultural 

 schools, which were deferred until the last. 



The first resolve was read and adopted on motion of Mr. 

 Keyes, of the Norfolk Society. 



The second resolution was next read, whereupon Mr. Page, 

 president of the Bristol Society, addressed the convention as 

 follows : — 



I do not like to have this resolve pass in silence. I think 

 there is matter there which will commend itself to the judg- 

 ment of every gentleman who has given the subject of agri- 

 culture and agricultural societies in Massachusetts any consid- 

 eration. We have had agricultural societies for years, in va- 

 rious parts of this Commonwealth. Each has gone on, in its 

 own way, to accomplish the good objects which are proposed 

 by all. But, sir, the action of each of these societies has been 

 isolated, confined to itself, communicated, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, to nobody, except those who happened to be present 

 at the annual exhibitions ; and even, sir, where a report is 

 annually prepared, as it has been in the two years of the exist- 

 ence of your society, and in Essex and one or two others, it is 

 a local matter after all, and finds its way into the hands of but 

 very few of the practical farmers of the Commonwealth. The 

 result of this state of things,— this want of cooperation,— has 

 limited the benefit that agricultural societies are capable of 

 accomplishing. The objects for which premiums are awarded 



