264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I am happy to report that the agricultural societies are, for 

 the most part, in a strong and healthful condition. But there 

 is a wide difference to be found among them in respect to their 

 efficiency and power for good, owing chiefly to the management 

 adopted by them. Some of them comply with the spirit of the 

 law, and aim to gain and to diffuse information, to awaken en- 

 terprise, emulation and mental activity ; while others content 

 themselves with a bare compliance with the letter, and add 

 nothing to our present stock of knowledge, and nothing to the 

 general intelligence of the State. The former publish valuable 

 reports, full of instruction and replete with information and in- 

 terest, and regard this as the great leading object of their exist- 

 ence ; while the latter spend their energies altogether upon the 

 fair, — which, though in itself educating, is ephemeral in its in- 

 fluence, and, at best, only of secondary importance, — and return 

 little or nothing for the money they receive from the State, 

 nothing of general value, nothing on which the mind can dwell 

 with any degree of satisfaction. 



Now the main object of the State in awarding bounties is not 

 to distribute its money to please a few small contributors, but to 

 develop its material resources by adding to the general intelli- 

 gence upon farming ; to encourage experiment and farm im- 

 provement ; to increase the quality and value of our stock by 

 holding up a high standard of excellence ; and, above all, to 

 elevate the dignity and character of agriculture itself as a prac- 

 tical pursuit. The State expects, and has a right to expect, 

 that every society will comply with the spirit as well as the 

 letter of the law, by contributing its proportion to the general 

 intelligence. 



CHARLES L. FLINT, 



Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. 

 BosTOi^, January 26, 1870. 



