132 ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



execution of what is already well understood. The results, as 

 recorded in the transactions of this society, are justly deemed as 

 one of its best features. It is because it thus contributes to the 

 fund of agricultural knowledge, that its labors are so highly ap- 

 preciated. If so much, then, is done, by this society, in diffusing 

 its own knowledge among others, may it not confer an equal 

 benefit on its own members, by procuring knowledge from 

 abroad, to be circulated at home ? There is probably a vast 

 amount of agricultural information, now lost to the reading 

 farmers of the county, for no other reason than that they have 

 not the means to obtain it. Cheap as are books, they cost a 

 large sum in the aggregate, larger than most farmers can afford ; 

 and, for this reason, they have often to deny themselves the ad- 

 vantages to be derived from them. If this be true, would not 

 this society, and kindred associations, discharge their high trust, 

 with a wise and liberal forecast, by laying the foundation of a 

 library, to supply, free of cost, this demand for agricultural read- 

 ing. 



Such a library would be useful, because, in the second place, 

 by furnishing the means for reading, it would serve to increase 

 the number of reading men, in the agricultural community. It 

 is now too late a day, when so many agricultural newspapers 

 are taken and read, to urge the importance of having all farm- 

 ers, especially young farmers, well informed on all subjects, 

 within the sphere of their occupation. The time is fast coming, 

 if it has not already come, when every farmer should be ac- 

 quainted with something beyond the practical routine of his own 

 cultivation; when, to be an intelligent farmer, he should be able 

 to give a reason for this and that process, by which he obtains 

 different results ; to understand processes different from his own, 

 and to be able to compare them with his own ; and, indeed, to 

 survey, if not the whole domain of agricultural skill, in this, 

 and in other countries, at least some of the more striking parts of 

 it, and to draw, from such a survey, useful suggestions, for his 

 own practice. 



Besides this advantage, the mere exercise of the mental facul- 

 ties, derived from agricultural reading, is, of itself, almost a 

 sufficient reason in its favor. The farmer should keep his mind, 



