ADVERTISEMENT. 





By the act of 1852, chap. 142, establishing the State 

 Board of Agriculture, it was provided that " all the duties 

 of the Secretary of the Commonwealth relating to the 

 returns of agricultural societies shall be performed by the 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture/' In compliance 

 with this enactment, the annual returns of the different 

 agricultural societies were placed in the hands of the 

 Secretary, j;ro tempore^ of the State Board, by whom the 

 present volume of Transactions has been prepared. 



The returns have been found more full and valuable in 

 statistics and . in statements of experiments, than in pre- 

 ceding years, and more societies have published their pro- 

 ceedings in a pamphlet form ; a practice that ought to 

 become universal, since the usefulness and prosperity of 

 any society is greatly promoted thereby. No regular 

 system having yet been established in regard to returns, 

 there is a want of uniformity in them, and the results are 

 therefore less satisfactory than they would otherwise be ; 

 while the labor of collating them is increased many fold. 

 These difficulties will doubtless all be obviated hereafter. 

 A State Board having been organized and intrusted with 

 full power and discretion in regard to the matter, such 

 forms and tables will be furnished to the several societies, 



