168 P^'of. RusseWs Address before the 



our own land. Should the mode of culture of any extra fine 

 plant, vegetable, or fruit, the origin, (if known,) of a new 

 apple, pear, or the like, be made a requisite for the obtaining 

 the Society's premium, the plan might be highly conducive to 

 the advance of the science. 



To extend throughout the county the benefits which we 

 expect from our Society, we must take some pains to set 

 forth more plainly and explicitly its intention. It should be 

 constantly an endeavor to introduce among our farmers the 

 new and improved kinds of apples and other easily raised 

 fruits. A prejudice, I am informed, is existent against the 

 Society, to its disadvantage. It is considered a mere associ- 

 ation to exhibit flowers. Now these are generally regarded 

 by the agricultural interest, as valueless, and more fitting for 

 children than for their notice. How erroneous such notions 

 are, we will not now stop to inquire; but would we add to 

 our numbers, and would we be the benefactors of our agri- 

 cultural friends, we must attend more to our fruits. If you 

 can persuade a single farmer that it would be for his interest 

 to join the county society, for the information he may acquire 

 in the growth of fruit, and in the making profitable his orchard, 

 or even his kitchen garden, then we might reasonably antici- 

 pate no trifling results. As to his errors on flower culture, 

 these will vanish, if you can only persuade him to admire 

 with you the noble specimens of fruits which ornament your 

 tables, or to wonder at the huge pumpkins and squashes which 

 lie about the hall. In these he sees his interest, and in those 

 he may learn to see yours. He will gradually learn, also, to 

 take an interest in an institution which he finds takes into view 

 his prosperity and success, while, at the same time, a wider 

 range of the subject may supplant his former narrow and pre- 

 judiced one- 

 Such, then, is the present condition of our Society in its 

 prospects, its duties, and its results. Need we more than an 

 increasing interest in its welfare, to encourage us to perse- 

 vere.'' The success of a year's experiment may serve as an 

 evidence of our future prosperity. Let no lack of enterprise 

 cause us to lose sight of the object of our association, that its 

 efforts in the cause of good n:ay be as signal as its com- 

 mencement augurs. 



Although we may scarcely compete with the efTorts of the 

 State society, there yet can be no reason why ours should 

 not be proportionally as great. The existence of many val- 



