29 



KEPORT OF SUPERVISORY COMjMITTEE. 



To fulfil the purpose of their appointment, as best they might, 

 your Committee have kept in view the general interests and par- 

 ticular objects of the Society, and improved every offered oppor- 

 tunity to promote them. 



At the commencement of our labors, circular letters were issued 

 inviting the cooperation of the trustees of the Society, in their re- 

 spective towns, and a sei'ies of agricultural questions designed to 

 call forth definite and reliable information from the farmers of the 

 County, respecting their practice and experience. These papers 

 were sent to the several trustees ; and, in accordance with pre- 

 concerted arrangements, we visited the Towns of Canton, IMilton, 

 Randolph, Weymouth, Braintree, Dorchester, West lloxbury, 

 Franklin, and Medway ; and it is with pleasure we ackno^Yledge 

 the attention and hospitality received by us, and the gratifying 

 proofs we observed of general, and, in some instances, very 

 marked improvement. New and better buildings have been erected, 

 better implements are used, better methods of cultivation are 

 practised, and more attention is paid to the selection and breed- 

 ing of stock. No one, familiar with the former condition of these 

 towns, can fail, we think, to remark the favorable change in all 

 these respects, or to observe the fruits of well directed industry 

 and skill enriching the farmers and adorning their homes. 



Particularly, is it observable in several towns, that many fami- 

 Ues of wealth and refinement, from the city, have become residents 

 there ; seeking comfort and enjoyment in the scenes and employ- 

 ments of rural life, spreading around their dwellings the improve- 

 ments of intelligence and taste, and lending the aid of those 

 experiments in agriculture and horticulture, which they can best 

 afford to make, to increase the aggregate knowledge and wealth 

 of the community. Strikingly apparent, also, in other places, is 

 the degree of interest and zeal manifested by individuals in the 

 welfare of this Society and the promotion of its object. 



It is not to be denied, however, that there are large tracts of 

 land which need better cultivation, and whose proprietors need the 

 stimulus of ambition and help of better information. Many farm- 

 ers yet stand aloof from the Society and refuse to avail themselves 

 of the aid and encouragement it is designed, and seeks to afford. 

 Agricultural books and papers fail to excite the interest and com- 

 mand the attention, which might reasonably be expected, of those 

 to whose daily employment and means of subsistence they relate. 



