ADDRESS. 



BY DR. GEORGE B. LORING, OF SALEM, 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society: 



I have returned with new pleasure to my annual service 

 of addressing the farmers of this Commonwealth. Hither- 

 to I have dealt chiefly with abstract subjects connected with 

 Agriculture — the duty and importance of Agricultural 

 Societies — the Social and Civil Condition of the Farmer — 

 New England Farming — Agricultural Education. Hav- 

 ing done this, I now propose to deal in successive ad- 

 dresses with the specific points of interest which are con- 

 nected with the business of farming — with crops — with 

 cattle — with manures — with drainage — with soils — with 

 cultivation ; for I deem a careful investigation of these 

 topics to be fully as important to the Agricultural Socie- 

 ties in our State, fully as worthy of the thought of the 

 scholar, and the rhetoric of the orator, and fully as useful 

 to the farmer as can be any abstruse discourse upon the 

 civil, or moral, or financial, or political relations of Agri- 

 culture to the human race. 



In selecting the foremost subject of all these that have a 

 bearing more immediately upon the great industry which: 

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