ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 33 



Dr. Nichols had made contributions of great value to 

 scientific agriculture by his work on his farm near Lake 

 Kenoza, Haverhill, which he had purchased in 1863. 

 Under his skillful treatment an unproductive land yielded 

 abundant crops. He established the Journal of Chemistry 

 in Boston in 1866. His books, "Fireside Science," 

 "Chemistry of the Farm and Sea," had wide circulation. 

 "Whence, What, Where," published in 1883, had great 

 popularity. He died on Jan. 2, 1888. 



Gen. Appleton, speaking at Haverhill in 1882, was able 

 to say that the French method of sour fodder, adopted 

 in the United States, was already becoming popular, and 

 that silos had been built on a large number of farms. 



Benjamin P. Ware, in his address in 1883, recounted 

 the possessions and achievements of the Society: no 

 grounds, no trotting park, no show buildings, only a tent, 

 some portable cattle pens, 1,200 exhibition fruit dishes, 

 but an experimental farm of 150 acres, which brought an 

 income of $300 to $500 a year besides expenses, a library 

 of 800 volumes, and funds which amounted to $16,690.00. 

 "It has never paid a dollar for speed since its organiza- 

 tion, but has paid an average of $3,000 annually for pre- 

 miums for the past ten years, and a total sum since the 

 beginning of $44,271.54." 



"The Society is supporting," he continued, "three 

 scholarships at the Massachusetts Agricultural College 

 for four years at $50 each, and has offered a premium of 

 $100 for the best prepared student from Essex County 

 who completes his course. Its present membership is 

 1,388. It publishes annually 1,600 copies of its Transac- 

 tions, averaging from 120 to 220 pages." 



The activities of the Society had now been manifest 

 in a new field, the holding of Farmers' Institutes in vari- 

 ous towns, at which valuable papers were read and prac- 

 tical farm affairs discussed. The most significant evi- 

 dence of the quickening influence the Essex Agricultural 



