UTILITY OF AGRIClULTURAL SOCIETIES. 271 



Tery large one, is the effect of so much additional labor 

 'and manure as would exceed in value the difference be- 

 tween the crops. Hence, it is so rarely the case, that 

 farmers avail themselves of the experience of the few 

 who have been greatly successful from superior method, 

 diligence, and skill. And although the whole mystery 

 may be resolved into thorough tillage, clean husbandry, 

 and a liberal use of manure, the common cultivator will 

 have it, in the face of well authenticated facts, that 

 there is some secret fallacy, and that he of course, who 

 has the best managed and most productive farm gets the 

 least profit, and that a man is poor in proportion to the 

 magnitude of his crops ! The only means of counter- 

 acting this unfavorable id<?a, is to bring frequently into 

 view of the farmer, examples as near home as they can 

 be found, of substantial prolit as the fruit of every im- 

 provement. A^Ticuitural societies may do this, not on- 

 ly by means of the exhibitions and statements, offered 

 at their annual shows, but by disseminating information, 

 through the medium of the newspapers, of all the im- 

 provements on particular farms which come within their 

 observation. The effects of negligent husbandry, ex- 

 hibited in its consequences when it pervades a whole 

 county, might, we think, afford an impressive lesson. 



Although these societies, owing to the want of patron- 

 age, have effected but little in some parts of our coun- 

 try, there is no reason for discouragement : on the con- 

 trary, when we consider the recent date of their estab- 

 lishment, and the difticulties they have had to encoun- 

 ter, we shall find more occasion for rejoicing that so 

 much has been done, than for being disheartened be» 

 cause more has not been effected. The agricultural 

 class of the community has been almost universally at- 

 tached to established practice. Many of our larmers 

 seem to think it a sufficient justification of their S3'tem of 

 farming, whether successful or not, that they have al- 

 ways pursued it, and that thoir fathers did so before 

 them ; they listen with unwillingness and distrust to any 

 proposed innovation, and look upon the person who re- 

 commends it as a visionary man, whose councils it would 

 be ruinous to follow : in short, it is the misfortune of too 

 man}^ of our farmers that they think the}' know enough 



