PREFACE. 



A careful examination of the returns of the Agricul- 

 tural Societies shows the importance of such revision in 

 the method of awarding premiums as to increase the 

 efficiency and influence of the bounty of the State. The 

 details of the system, though proper enough at the outset, 

 have not, in all cases, been adapted to the exigencies of 

 the times; and the influence of the society in such cases 

 has not reached so far as to awaken an interest in the 

 subject where little existed before, or to spread informa- 

 tion by means of carefully prepared Transactions dis- 

 tributed all over the county. 



The agricultural bounty, small as it is, has without 

 doubt been of great and lasting good to the Common- 

 wealth. This was to be expected. But no society can 

 accomplish the highest good of which it is capable with- 

 out constant and unremitting efforts to excite and keep 

 alive the spirit of progress ; and the result of these efforts 

 should be seen on the fields of every farmer in the county. 

 One mode of doing this is by the publication and distri- 

 bution of reports, prepared with care and full of practical 

 information, among all the farmers within the limits of 

 the society, whether members or not. 



