408 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



collections may be made, and that the farmers may there inter- 

 change views and may get ideas which they will reduce to 

 practice. They will be necessary in order that men may en- 

 courage each other by acting together, to talk over these sub- 

 jects of common interest. If you have your agricultural schools 

 or not, carried on under any plan, still I think you need these 

 same agricultural societies, as their business is distinct entirely 

 from that of your agricultural schools, each working in its own 

 department in the same great cause. And, in any event, while 

 you have these agricultural societies you will need this central 

 association in order that they may all stand on the same plat- 

 form, that they may have the same object in view, and the 

 same general mode of carrying out and attempting to accom- 

 plish that object. 



It is supposed that this association, formed of delegates from 

 each of the societies, would come together at stated periods, 

 and have meetings other than stated ones, whenever occasion 

 may require ; that facts of interest may be laid before them ; 

 that the light of minds from all parts of the Commonwealth 

 may be brought to bear ; that they may devise rules which may 

 be presented to the several societies throughout the Common- 

 wealth ; and that we might, by concerted action, accomplish 

 that, which, by acting separately, it has been heretofore impos- 

 sible to produce, and probably to all time, in the past desultory 

 mode of action, would be impossible to produce. 



Mr. Proctor, president of the Essex Society, remarked : — 

 I fully accord with most of the views that have been suggested, 

 and believe that there is room, by delegates coming together 

 from the different societies, of very much improving their 

 mode of administering their affairs. I think, sir, these socie- 

 ties owe to the Commonwealth something of this kind. They 

 have now been established, many of them, about thirty years. 

 The Commonwealth has appropriated $5,000 to $7,000 annu- 

 ally, for their support. Generally, if I understand it, they are 

 in a good degree of favor throughout the Commonwealth. I 

 believe they are thought, in their different spheres, to have 

 done much useful service. 



Now the remark has been made, that their meetings con- 



