DUTIES OF AN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. T 



inventions were brought upon the ground almost at a day's 

 warning, and since that time, two others have been sent to me 

 for introduction to our farmers whb are becoming proverbial 

 for their enterprise in the use of machinery. We have at 

 our exhibition to-day, one of only two tedders that have been 

 imported into this country — a machine, which in the simple 

 matter of spreading hay, is of inestimable value to every farmer 

 who would secure this important crop thoroughly, rapidly and 

 economically. 



I will not say that all these agricultural improvements, these 

 indications of an agricultural ambition among us, have been 

 brought about by our society ; but I am proud to say there is 

 not one of them which has not been encouraged by its liberality. 

 The competition it has excited in mowing machines alone, has 

 aided in a very great degree, the development of an instrument 

 of labor from one degree of perfection to another, until our 

 farmers have the prospect before them of being able to resign 

 the scythe with all its hard toil, and with the constantly 

 increasing expense attending its use. And will our horticul- 

 turists, our breeders of cattle, our reclaimers of waste lands, 

 our cultivators of field crops, say tliat they have not been 

 stimulated by our society and enlightened by its publications ? 



I consider, therefore, this collection of practical knowledge, 

 as one of the highest duties our society has to perform. I 

 would have it continued by every means within our power, 

 consistent with prudence and economy. I am confident that 

 by a faithful discharge of this duty, we shall find our whole 

 farming community advancing in intelligence and prosperity, 

 and developing those resources which lie hidden in our soil. 

 And I am encouraged to believe this, when I look abroad and 

 see what other similar associations have done, and what they 

 indicate. In England, where agriculture has reached a degree 

 of perfection unknown elsewhere, the greatest attention is paid 

 to agricultural societies. The meetings of the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society are thronged by an interested crowd of husband- 

 men, who have felt the effects of this noble institution upon all 

 their interests. In 1857, the number of visitors to the show 

 at Salisbury amounted to over thirty-five thousand, all learners 

 in a school which first roused the English mind to the true 

 value of artificial manures — to the necessity of under-drainage — 



