96 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



actual oV)scrvatioii and experience of the members ; and agricul- 

 ture would at once become better understood and more carefully 

 practised by each person who intended to contribute to the 

 exercises of the meetings. 



Until the establishment of agricultural journals, there were 

 no means by which the results of individual experience could 

 be made known to the mass of farmers ; and even now, men of 

 the largest experience are not the chief contributors. 



W herever a local club exists, it is always possible to compare 

 the knowledge of the different members, and the results of such 

 comparison may, when deemed desirable, be laid before the 

 public at large. It is also in the power of such an organization 

 thorouglily and at once to test any given experiment. The 

 attention of this section of the country has been directed to the 

 culture of the Chinese sugar cane ; and merchants, economists 

 and statesmen, as well as the farmers themselves, are interested 

 in the speedy and satisfactory solution of so important an indus- 

 trial problem. Had the attention of a few local societies in 

 different parts of New England been directed to the cul- 

 ture, with special reference to its feasibility and profitableness, 

 a definite result might have been reached the present year. 

 The growth of flax, both in the means of cultivation and econo- 

 my, is a subject of great importance. Many other crops might 

 also be named, concerning which opposite, not to say vague, 

 opinions prevail. The local societies may make these trials, 

 through the agency of individual members, better than they can 

 he made by county and state societies, and better than they can 

 usually be made upon model or experimental farms. It will 

 often happen upon experimental farms that the circumstances 

 do not correspond to the condition of things among the farmers. 

 The combined practical wisdom of such associations must be 

 very great ; and I have but to refer to the published minutes of 

 the proceedings of the Concord Club to justify this statement 

 in its broadest sense. The meetings of such a club have all the 

 characteristics of a school of the highest order. Each member 

 is at the same time a teacher and a pupil. The meeting is to 

 the farmer what the court room is to the lawyer, the hospital to 

 the physician, and the legislative assembly to the statesman. 



Moot courts alone will not make skilful lawyers, the manikin 

 is but an indifferent teacher of anatomy, and we may safely say 



