m 



that on a call issued, gentlemen without hesitation have come up here for 

 the purpose of seeing whether we cannot do something for agriculture. 

 And, in accordance with that desire, it is proposed to bring the active 

 minds of the State, who want to see improvement, into a Committee who 

 shall examine in detail the matters on which the different Societies are in- 

 terested, and see if something cannot be done to waken the people to more 

 interest in this department of industry, which seems almost to have been 

 forgotten, though it was once the main interest of the State. We may ac- 

 complish what we want to see carried out by the movement without diffi- 

 culty. We may feel satisfied, from what we see heie to-day, that with 

 a Committee organized as is proposed, something will be obtained 

 which will create the new interest we wish to secure. I think that 

 the faces we see here to-day are the best proof of this ; and I hope 

 that not only will the resolution be passed, but that gentlemen will 

 feel that that is not the last of it ; that if they are to carry any thing 

 into effect in their County organizations, they should meet at once for 

 the purpose of selecting out the most active minds they have, for the pur- 

 pose of doing something in the different departments of agriculture. 



I think that this resolution is one of the most important ones that can 

 come before the meeting ; and I rose because I did not think that by again 

 neglecting this matter, or by referring it back to the old organization, how- 

 ever respectable, we should carry out the object which is proposed by the 

 Committee. 



'ntmpr 



SPEECH OF HON. SETH SPRAGUE, PRESIDENT OF THE PLYMOUTH 



COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MR. PRESIDENT 



It was not designed by the Committee that that resolution should at 

 all reflect upon or interfere with the character or operation of the State 

 Central Society. It was intended to carry out some details in the opera- 

 tion of the County Societies which the State Society could not well effect. 

 The gentleman who first spoke, and the gentleman from Essex, have ex- 

 plained this matter. 



The State Society have done much for agriculture in importing different 

 breeds of cattle, and distributing them gratuitously in different parts of the 

 Commonwealth. They have done a great deal for agriculture ; and gen- 

 tlemen who have been eminent in public life, who have now gone to their 

 graves, and who were devoted to agriculture in the arduous labors they per- 

 formed in connection with that Society, deserve our highest acknowledge- 

 ments. But the State Agricultural Society cannot make arrangements for 

 the time of the Agricultural Societies to hold their meetings. The State 

 Agricultural Society cannot well arrange the premiums and the details of 

 the operation of the several County Agricultural Societies. They have no 

 means of doing it. It is utterly out of their power to do it. 



Now this Board will be composed of gentlemen knowing the wants of 



