26 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



icallj, the solution of the various experiments in husbandry, proposed 

 as subjects of premiums. 



The list of premiums offered by the Society has from time to 

 time been varied and enlarged, with a view to excite competition, 

 stimulate skill and determine important questions in the practice of 

 a<Triculture. It cannot be denied, however, that augmenting the 

 amount of money premiums has not always secured these results to 

 the extent desired. Something more seems to be wanting — a 

 •wider and more thorough conviction among our farmers, that agri- 

 cultural societies and agricultural shows are a means, and a most 

 efficient means, of instruction and profit. 



" Reflecting farmers," said Pickering in some of his early re- 

 marks to the Society, " who shall become candidates for premiums, 

 will be aware, that if their exertions should not obtain the honor of 

 a prize, they will not pass unrewarded, as all the improvements they 

 make will either give them immediate profits, or add to the value 

 of their farms. The direct object of premiums is not to excite 

 merely trials of skill, but to add to the aohd interests of farming ; 

 and he, who shall show how we may add most to that solid interest, 

 will obtain the highest prize." 



Perhaps in no one particular has the wisdom of the Society been 

 evidenced more than in publishing its transactions from year to 

 year, from the date of its origin. It has thus embodied and pre- 

 served the precepts and practices of our best farmers ; and it has 

 diffused the information not only within our own borders, but to 

 some extent throughout the Coventry. It is gratifying to know 

 that the example thus set, has been followed by most of the county 

 societies in the state. We owe much to that great man — the first 

 President of the Society, whose words we have before quoted, for 

 early inculcating the importance of this practice, and himself taking 

 the lead in preparing valuable communications, tending to the im- 

 provement of our agriculture. In closing the first address to the 

 Society, he says : 



" The very extended modern improvements in the agriculture of 

 Great Britain have been effected principally by the adoption of the 

 best practices of different districts, in others where they were before 

 unknown. These have been communicated by intelligent gentle- 

 men, who visited the principal parts of the kingdom, for the pur- 

 pose of ac(i[uiring a knowledge of their various husbandry ; and 



