SECRETARY'S REPORT. 29 



to appoint a superintending committee of eight to manage the 

 farm. This committee .was appointed, consisting of Messrs. 

 Wilder, French, Brooks, Newell, Sprague, Clapp, Nash and 

 Chandler. 



A committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Brown 

 and Lewis, to consider what action should be taken with ref- 

 erence to the methods of awarding premiums by the societies. 

 This committee reported that some evils had arisen from the 

 practice which had grown up in some parts of the Common- 

 wealth, by which individuals claimed and received several pre- 

 miums on the same article from different societies, and that it 

 was expedient to petition the Legislature to pass a law by 

 which this practice should be prohibited. 



In the preceding pages, I have laid before the Legislature 

 the principal doings of the Board for the past year. Much 

 time has been spent in the discussion and arrangement of mi- 

 nute details, which called for instant attention, and in the 

 investigation, by means of committees, of various subjects in 

 relation to which information seemed to be needed. These 

 could not well be imbodied in a general report ; but their re- 

 sults will, for the most part, be found in the account of the 

 management of the State Farm already given, and in the re- 

 ports of the various committees to which different subjects 

 were referred. 



One great and important object, for which the friends of agri- 

 cultural improvement are now laboring, is to find means of 

 anticipating and guarding against the evils of a disastrous sea- 

 son like that which has just passed. From the nature of his 

 occupation, the farmer, like the sailor, must direct his course 

 somewhat by his judgment of the future. Indeed, so many of 

 the daily operations of the farm are dependent on the state of 

 the weather that he is of necessity a meteorologist ; and, from 

 his constant habit of observation, he often becomes more skil- 

 ful and more weather-wise than the scientific observer with all 

 the aids of science. Meteorology promises some happy results 

 for agriculture hereafter; but at present, investigators in this 

 department of natural science must be rather the historians of 



