20 



mighty engine undermines old prejudices, and has taught 

 the farmer that however independent he may be, he is 

 not so much so, as that the experience of others will not 

 profit him. Most of us have become wilhng to seek di- 

 rections, even if they are contained in a book. We are 

 becoming more like liberal, free-born, aspiring men." 



JosiAH Newiiall, Esq., addressed the Society at Lynn, 

 Sept. 28, 1848. He thought "the great stumbling block 

 in the way of agricultural improvement has been the 

 want of a knowledge of the vegetable economy of the 

 structure and growth of plants. Did farmers fully reid- 

 lize the indispensable necessity of supplying food to plants 

 to promote their growth, that they do to feed animals, we 

 should immediately see the commencement of an improv- 

 ed husbandry. 



Hon. Asa T. Newhall, the orator of the Society, Sep- 

 tember 26, 1849, at Danvers, recommended the reclama- 

 tion of " wet meadows and swamps when the mud or peat 

 is from two to ten feet in depth," rather than those " where 

 the plough would run to or near the hard pan beneath." 

 He spoke of the necessity of curing salt hay properly ; 

 said " the willow on low marshy land will rather improve 

 the grass than otherwise, and afford a large quantity of 

 wood, it being of rapid growth." 



Hon. Caleb Gushing was the orator at Salem, Septem- 

 ber 26,1850. He said: "In proportion as productive 

 land is abundant, and easy of acquisition by all the mem- 

 bers of the community, will society be sound on the main 

 point, that is, the absence of either serfdom or pauperism, 

 and of the criminal classes created by the unequal distri- 

 bution of limited national wealth." True. 



Rev. Milton P. Braman spoke before the Society Sep- 

 tember 25, 1851, at Salem. He dwelt on "the oppressed 



