ADVERTISEMENT. 



Secretary's Office, March 24, 1849. 



The present volume of Transactions of the Agricultural Societies 

 does not differ essentially from the preceding volumes. It has been 

 made up from the Returns of the past year by the gentleman, who 

 has been employed heretofore in the same work, Hon, A. W. Dodge, 

 an intelligent farmer of Essex County. 



In some respects, the reports of the festivals and fairs of the last 

 Fall are inferior, in point of interest, to those of former years. In two 

 or three of the counties, Middlesex and Hampden especially, this 

 must be attributed to uncontrollable causes, which prevented the car- 

 rying out of matured arrangements. 



Complaint is sometimes made, and apparently with justice, that 

 many of the reports of committees, made at the annual shows, are 

 deficient in fulness. In some of the counties, great pains are taken to 

 give a satisfactory view of every thing important connected with these 

 shows. And these reports are so valuable and instructive, that the 

 desire is a natural and a strong one, that they may all partake of this 

 character. Where prizes are awarded for successful efforts, the pre- 

 mium may be satisfactory to the individual who obtains it ; but this 

 alone adds nothing to the stock of general information, which is the 

 leading purpose of the bounty of the State. It is greatly to be hoped 

 that the reports of committees may continue to improve in the essen- 

 tial requisite of furnishing, with minuteness, all the means by which, in 

 each case of premium, the result has been attained. And it may not be 

 improper to repeat here, — what was suggested in the preliminary notice 



