13 



favor throughout the Commonwealth. I believe they are thought, in their 

 different spheres, to have done much useful service. 



I believe, sir, that the members of these Societies entertain the hope that 

 they have so commended themselves to the Legislature, that they may rea- 

 sonably expect an increase of the bounty of the State for their support. If 

 they are to have that increase, or if they are not, they are in duty bound 

 so to use whatever they have as to make it benefit agriculture. 



Now the remark has been made, that the meetings of the different Socie- 

 ties conflict with each other. Several of these meetings come on the same 

 day. It would be well that there should be an understanding that they 

 should come one after the other, so that individuals could go into other 

 Counties and see what was done there ; that they could, by their practical 

 Dbservation, carry home that which they might find valuable. In this way 

 the objects of the premiums would be suggested to them, and the manner of 

 offering them. In this way there might be very great improvement in the 

 discharge of the duties of Committees in reporting on the subject. 



I believe, sir, it has been found by the gentleman who has prepared the 

 annual abstract which has been published by the Legislature, that in differ- 

 ent Counties there is a very great variety of the degree of attention paid in 

 preparing those reports. In some Counties it has been an object to make 

 those reports worthy of notice ; to make them the means of disseminating 

 useful knowledge. And when they are embodied together, a useful book is 

 furnished. If the State is to be at the expense of publishing annually the 

 reports of the several Counties, it is very desirable that the digest should be 

 drawn up in such a form as to be creditable to the State. Any gentleman 

 who has examined the reports of the State Agricultural Society in New 

 York, will find that it gives a fund of original information, a treasury of 

 valuable knowledge every year. Constitute this Board, and Massachu- 

 setts, though far inferior to New York in size and means, would still come 

 into respectable comparison with her as affording useful information oc this 

 subject. 



I was pleased with the suggestion made. I only make these remarks 

 that gentlemen should understand the object contemplated. And until the 

 Legislature shall carry out the more general recommendation of the estab- 

 lishment of a Board of Agriculture, as one of the departments of the State, 

 it seems to me proper that the Agricultural Societies, who are now the 

 foster children of the State, should be no far organized as to do this as well 

 as they can. 



REMARKS OF HORATIO C. MERRIAM, ESQ., OF TEWKSBURY. 



MR. PRESIDENT 



I have been exceedingly interested in the remarks of my friends. The 

 one who last spoke, the President of the Essex County Society, is of 

 thirty years standing in this cause ; and my friend, behind me, from Bristol 

 County, is not far behind him. If I understand the object, it is to concen- 



