364 HOUSATONIC SOCIETY. 



itself. It is believed that the true cause of this disease must 

 be sought for among the secrets of atmospheric and meteoro- 

 logical changes, against which no precaution can effectually 

 guard. 



The exhibition of cattle, agricultural implements and pro- 

 ducts, fruits and flowers, and the products of the dairy and 

 garden, was larger at our annual fair than ever before. The 

 annual address, by Hon. G. P. R. James, was an able and elo- 

 quent production, favorably contrasting English husbandry, 

 — with which he had great apparent familiarity, — with our 

 own. He appealed to the agriculturists of the United States 

 to do for the soil what they had done in the struggles for po- 

 litical prosperity and social happiness. 



This society is happy to record the advances which have 

 been made in agriculture, stimulated by the patronage of the 

 State, and those intelligent and enthusiastic friends, who have 

 incited interest and competition in the development of the 

 hidden resources of the soil. Our farms are vastly improved 

 in productiveness ; swamps and barren hill side slopes have 

 been redeemed from worthlessness, the various soils have been 

 adapted to the requirements of superior culture, and the 

 amount of crops has been doubled. Instead of thirty or thirty- 

 five bushels of corn on an acre, no farmer here competes with 

 his neighbor unless he feels assured of from sixty to eighty 

 bushels. The harvest of the smaller grains have filled the gar- 

 ners, while the cultivation of the sugar beet, the turnip, carrots, 

 &c., &c., has been successfully attempted. This society would 

 recommend a greater attention to the cultivation of fruit. It 

 is believed that the Housatonic Valley, with its warm alluvium, 

 is admirably adapted for apples, pears, peaches, (in sheltered 

 situations,) apricots, plums, melons, and cherries. The great 

 majority of our farmers have heretofore paid little or no atten- 

 tion to scientific agriculture. They have b^n content to fol- 

 low in the old beaten track of their fathers, and too often have 

 contracted a prejudice against book-learned cultivators of the 

 soil. This prejudice is wearing away. 



Respectfully submitted, 



ROBT. E. GALPIN, President. 



CHAS. N. EMERSON, Secretary. 



