128 



Each of the thirty-five societies is entitled to draw not 

 exceeding SHOO each year from the State Treasury, pro- 

 vided it has $3000 (at least) of property and has awarded 

 in prizes, for the encouragement of agriculture, at least the 

 amount of bounty it draws any year, and has otherwise 

 complied with the rules and statute laws. Essex County 

 with two delegates receives $1200, and has a valuation of 

 )|233,308,097 and an acreage of 272,549, while Worcester 

 County has a valuation $191,955,290 and an acreage of 

 917,600. Essex ranks third in valuation and ninth in 

 acreage or about $856.34 per acre, while Worcester ranks 

 fourth in valuation an'd first in acreage or about $209.34 

 per acre. 



Mr. Ware in commencing his address, spoke of the very 

 intimate connection of Essex County with the State Board, 

 from its foundation to the present time. 



The first published idea of a State Board was by Rev. 

 Henry Coleman, of Salem, in 1840. He was appointed 

 by the Legislature, a surveyor of agriculture for four 

 years and made a report of great value to that calling. 

 Mr. Ware spoke of the value of the agricultural reports, 

 l)repared under the auspices of the State Board. They 

 are forty in number and make up a veritable Agricultural 

 Encyclopedia. Mr. Charles L. Flint, a native of Middle- 

 ton, was the first secretary of the Board, the pioneer 

 whose place it was to carve out a course in the making of 

 these reports, and so well did he do his work that many 

 states have taken it for their model. Mr. Flint was a poor 

 boy, a graduate of Harvard, and the way in which he be- 

 came drawn into his work was this : While sitting in a 

 railway station one day waiting for a train, he happened 

 to observe a printed notice of the Essex Agricultural 

 Society offering a prize of $20 or $30 for the best essay on 

 the cultivation of Indian corn. He at once conceived 

 tlie idea of striving for the i^rize, which he did and se- 

 cured it. 



