A. DDR ESS 



BY GEORGE B. LOIIING. 



Mr, Presidmij and Gentlemen of the Society y—-^ 



I have returned with new pleasure to my annual 

 service of addressing the farmers of this Commonwealth. 

 Hitherto I have dealt chiefly with abstract subjects^ 

 connected with Agriculture — the duty and importance 

 of Agricultural Societies— the social and civil condition 

 of the Farmer — New England farming— Agricultural 

 Education. With this introduction^ I now propose to 

 deal with the specific points of interest, which are con- 

 nected with the business of farming— with crops, with 

 cattle — with manures— with drainage— with soils — 

 with cultivation ; for I deem a careful investigation of 

 these topics to be fully as important to the Agricultural 

 Societies in our State^ fully as worthy of the thought 

 of the scholar and the rhetoric of the orator^ and fully 

 as useful to the farmer, as can be any abstruse discourse 

 upon the civil, or moral, or financial, or political relations 

 of agriculture to the human race. 



In selecting the foremost subject of all these, that 

 bearing more immediately upon the great industry, 

 which we have met to honor, that which lies at the 

 foundation of all farming, that which includes the very 



