UTILITY OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. $6^ 



socb improvements. If he can g.iin any equivnlent for 

 his discoveries by virtue of patents, preminms, or other- 

 wise, let him ol»tain it. If not, he will do well to hw 

 them before the public, and take his reward in the con- 

 sciousness of having- been of service to his fellow-creat- 

 ures. The man who refuses a benefit which he might 

 bestow without injury to himself, i^ but iiitle better tliaa 

 one who does an injury without receiving any benefit 

 from the injurious act. The latter destroys human hap- 

 piness, and the former withholds the means by which 

 iiappiness might have existed. 



No plan perhaps can be found more effectual to ex- 

 tend a practical knowledge of ploughing, than the com- 

 peti ions excited at ploughing matches. 



Another, and very important effect of these institu- 

 tions will be, to cause farmers to think more of them- 

 selves as a body, and of the respectability of their pro- 

 fession than they have done. 



These institutions must also have a tendency to illus- 

 trate tie important truth, that there is no science in 

 which so great a variety of knowledge is necessary, as 

 that of agriculture. When this truth is admitted, pa- 

 rents will be more interested in the education of their 

 sons, and more particular in bringing them up to the pro- 

 fession of farmers. If schools and colleges are requisite 

 to promote one species of knowledge; if mi iiary and 

 naval academies have been painnrzed to prf^mcte an- 

 other; is it true of agriculture ahnc, that it requires no 

 aid — that art, which of all others, is the most important, 

 and contributes most, and in the most direct and visible 

 manner to the happiness, wealth and prosperity of 

 society ? 



Important consequences would result to the communi- 

 ty, could agricultural societies make a thorough investi- 

 gation every year into the state of farming- in their res- 

 pective districts, for the purpose of publishing the dis- 

 tinguishing features of each. Such an investigation 

 might form the basis of a series of systematic efforts oq 

 the part of these societies ; and act as a stimulus to in- 

 dustry. It would lead to a consideration, how far the 

 aggregate of the harvest corresponded with the capa- 

 bilities of the soil, assiated by a judicious husbandry. It 

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