76 ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



object for which we associated of any less importance now than 

 it was then 1 Is there less public spirit among our citizens now 

 than there was then ? Are they less able to encourage an insti- 

 tution of the kind, or less intelligent in appreciating its advan- 

 tages? Few, we believe, will readilj'' answer either of these 

 inquiries affirmatively. 



The continued liberality of the State, which has enabled the 

 society to offer our premiums annually, although to a limited 

 extent, and the adoption of a system of economy that has kept 

 its expenditures within the income, have had a tendency to pre- 

 vent the enlisting of new members; especially, while those 

 who were not members were permitted to enjoy equal privi- 

 leges, in competing for premiums, as those who were. If care 

 had been taken to increase the funds by the addition of seve?i 

 hwidred tiew tJiembers, who have come upon the stage since our 

 operations commenced, who would have been ready to join, if 

 properly solicited to do so, this addition could have been ad- 

 vantageously appropriated, in the new modes of improvement 

 that would have been brought forward. 



In fact, those who have directed the concerns of the society 

 have always felt themselves constrained, not by the want of ob- 

 jects of premium, but by the want of means to afford them ; 

 and by the desire to give permanency to the funds, that should 

 enable the society to continue its operations, if, perchance, any 

 thing should happen to discontinue the legislative bounty. But 

 there is no reason to fear any such discontinuance. Among all 

 the fanciful projects of economy that have been agitated, we 

 have never heard an intimation of the expediency of withhold- 

 ing the bounty to agricultural societies. On the contrary, the 

 appropriation has been very generally approved ; and it remains 

 with the farmers, themselves, to say, when, instead of six lum- 

 dred dollars annually, there shall be given one thousand dollars 

 annually, to each of the societies. Is this a visionary project? 

 Could it not be done by a little exertion ? Appoint your agents 

 to solicit subscribers. Let a memorial be presented to the Leg- 

 islature, setting forth the benefits to accrue therefrom ; let the 

 other societies in the Commonwealth be solicited to cooperate ; 

 and three chances out of four, another year would crown the 



