INTKODUCTORT. 



■which was fully discussed, but a vote to adopt the rec 

 ommendations of the Committee was not obtained. 



One hundred and thirty-five copies of the Agriculture 

 of Massachusetts for 1857 have been received from 

 C. L. Flint, Esq., Secretary of the Massachusetts State 

 Board of Agriculture, during the year, and have been 

 distributed by the Secretary among the members of the 

 Society and others interested in the cause of Agriculture. 

 He has also received and distributed, according to his 

 best judgment, more than one hundred volumes of other 

 works, including copies of the Agriculture of Massa- 

 chusetts for 1855 and 1856, and Patent Office Reports 

 on Agriculture, &c., all of which have been eagerly 

 sought, and in many cases carefully perused. Nearly 

 seven hundred small packages of seeds, &c., have also 

 been received from various sources, mainly from the 

 United States Patent Office, and have been distributed 

 freely, to all who have called for them, and have been 

 sent to many who did not call for them. This includes 

 one large package of Skirving's Improved Ruta-Baga 

 Seeds from the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion 

 of Agriculture, which, alone, was distributed among 

 about fifty members of the Society. 



Thirty-eight new members have joined the Society 

 during the year, making the total number who have 

 joined up to the present time, five hundred and twenty- 

 four. 



