20 MR. PERRT 8 ADDRESS. 



things wliicli promise best in that region, and to communi- 

 cate such information as will there be useful. How can this be 

 wisely and successfully executed without an intimate and ex- 

 tensive knowledge of what is doing, and the success which has 

 attended individual and variously directed operations. Much of 

 the information referred to is undoubtedly now possessed and 

 additional knowledge is acquired every year by the operations of 

 the Society ; yet I am sure, the most experienced will be the last 

 to think that no further investigations are needed. I certainly 

 have not knowledge enough to justify me in saying that patron- 

 age is miequally or unwisely extended to any article of produce 

 or manufacture ; from the character of those who have the direc- 

 tion of these things, we may confidently believe that such cannot 

 be the case ; yet I am certain that the best informed among them 

 will be the most ready to receive with candor the suggestion 

 that, after all, this may happen. I am more particular in re- 

 verting to this from a striking similarity of the articles encoura- 

 ged by the County Associations through this Commonwealth, 

 notwithstanding a considerable variety in the soil peculiar to each, 

 and the different comparative worth of the same kind of produce 

 arising from local circumstances and the occupations of the in- 

 habitants. 



An analysis of the soil of this county would be attended with 

 great advantage. Every vegetable is a chemical formation, as 

 strictly composed of the ingredients taken from the adjacent soil 

 and the atmosphere, as a loaf of bread is from the contents of the 

 flour-barrel and the yeast and liquid used to mosten it, and 

 must be more or less perfect according as the elements of which 

 it is made up exist or are present in a more or less just propor- 

 tion where it is elaborated. A defect or over supply of either of 

 the constituent parts which enter into the formation of a crop must 

 render the production less abundant in quantity or less excellent 

 in quality, just as too much rye or Indian meal will render the 

 noble New England leafless the glory of our tables. All vege- 

 tables, not being composed of the same elements, or if of the 

 same, not exactly in the same proportion, it is quite obvious that 

 .they must require different soils to arrive to the greatest perfec- 



