23 



Jinowleclge. He said : " The best professor of agricul- 

 tural chemistry is he who comes embrowned from the 

 compost heap, which by judicious application has forced 

 a hundred bushels of corn from each of his Avell cultivat- 

 ed acres. The best teacher of the art of tilling the soil 

 is he who has by long experience become acquainted 

 with the habits of plants, from their tenderest infancy 

 to the ripened harvest." 



J. J. H. Gregory, Esq., addressed the Society at Dan- 

 vers, Sept. 30, 1859. He said : " My principal object 

 on this occasion is to draw your attention to the import- 

 ance of correct observation and thorough experiment to 

 the farmer, with reference to the elevation of his nature 

 and the improvement of his calling." 



Rev. John L. Russell was the speaker at the annual 

 exliibition at South Dan vers, September 26, 1860. Deal- 

 ing with agriculture as an art, he said : " But no art can 

 successfully be pursued without a science to aid and as- 

 sist to prompt the labor and to point out the course." 



Hon. Alfred A. Abbott was the orator of the Society 

 at South Danvers, Sept. 25, 1861. He recommended 

 strongly the careful keeping of farm accounts, and eulo- 

 gized agricultural education. He said : " In the next 

 place, and of equal, and perhaps greater importance, the 

 young man who is to become a farmer should at once 

 feel and realize that the occupation upon which he is en- 

 tering is not a mere mechanical routine of labor ; that 

 while it is one which may require severe physical toil, it 

 also calls for and demands the exercise of the hierhest 



o 



intellectual faculties." 



George J. L. Colby, Esq., addressed the Society at 

 Georgetown, October 1, 1862. He spoke on "The Re- 

 lations of Man to Agriculture," and said : " Man's prog- 



