FARMS. 131 



dollars invested in. farms in Massachusetts, support a class ol 

 people with whom the anxieties of too many other occupations 

 are unknown ; and when we see among them those who make 

 farming profitable even with the light of experience alone, we 

 have a right to expect that a good agricultural education will 

 furnish a foundation to the business, which, while it elevates to 

 a higher standard, will still preserve that equality which already 

 exists. We believe that the farmers of Massachusetts conduce 

 vastly to the happiness of her people ; and we believe more- 

 over that they are entitled to all the benefits which practical 

 observations, science, education, the intelligence and industry 

 of an efficient and indefatigable Secretary of the State Board, 

 well-organized societies and a liberal legislation, can bestow. 



In conclusion, we would recommend that the services of a 

 competent person be secured by the society, to collect such 

 information from the farmers of this county, as will serve the 

 educational purposes to which we have referred. The valuable 

 report made by the chairman of the committee last year, was 

 the commencement of a plan which would secure a record of 

 useful farming experience, without occupying the time of the 

 busy farmer. We would recommend that the plan be contin- 

 ued. The benefit to be derived from it may be estimated by 

 the avidity with which every practical farmer seizes hold of 

 such facts as were then collected. We know of no better mon- 

 ument that the society could leave behind it, than the accumu- 

 lation of knowledge thus incorporated into its Tra ntattions 

 There is no way by which those important pieces of informa- 

 tion which now lie hidden here and there among our farms, 

 can be drawn forth so thoroughly and economically as by this ; 

 and if any suggestion of ours should operate to impress upon 

 the society the value of practical knowledge, and the propriety, 

 of this method of obtaining it, we shall feel that " our labors 

 have not been in vain." 



For the committee, 



Geo. B. Loring. 



