8 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to the importance of a thorough and careful investigation of 

 the best method of feeding animals, and to the most successful 

 modes of cultivation. It is impossible for me to lay before you 

 all that this society has done to remove the prejudices and 

 awaken the minds of the English farmers, both by its publi- 

 cations, and by its exhibitions of machinery which has been 

 actually used upon the farm, of cattle which have been improved 

 beyond a doubt in England, of products which high farming 

 has brought forth upon that very soil. Let me tell you that 

 one great era in English agriculture dates from the opening of 

 this society in 1839, when, as has been truly said, " farmers 

 began to be familiarized with men of science, and men of 

 science learned not to despise agricultural experience." It 

 was an era also in our own agriculture, when the establishment 

 of societies made famers familiar with each other, and opened 

 their minds to the importance of their occupation. 



It belongs to us to cherish by every means in our power, a 

 fraternity of feeling among our farmers. In this respect, every 

 form of associated agricultural effort is of the highest impor- 

 tance. A town that sustains a farmer's club is sure to have its 

 due proportion of good farmers. "What invaluable allies to a 

 county society they might be made ! Local fairs cannot be too 

 highly estimated, both as a means of bringing farmers together, 

 and also as furnishing an opportunity for purchase, sale and 

 interchange ; and I trust the day is not far distant when the 

 judicious recommendation made to you by your President, will 

 be so far carried out, as to result in the establishment of monthly, 

 if not weekly fairs, in some convenient location in the county. 

 Let us in every way create a community of feeling here, a sort 

 of esprit du corps, a desire to talk with each other, a desire to 

 trade with each other, a determination to cultivate our own 

 minds and supply our own markets, and Essex county will soon 

 become as distinguished for its agriculture, as it now is for 

 its wealth and enterprise in commerce, manufactures and the 

 mechanic arts. 



Above all things, it is our duty to be in the ordinary term of 

 rather an uneasy age, sufficiently progressive. When I consider 

 the alacrity with which every invention and every new branch 

 of agriculture have been recognized, the liberal rewards which 

 have been offered for all improvements, the generous consid- 



