INTRODUCTORY 1 9 



the patronage of many influential men and was successful in 

 making available a great deal of valuable information.^* 



For forty years after the War of 1812 had terminated 

 the brief existence of the Columbian Society, there does not 

 appear to have been any central organization which was 

 really representative of any very considerable part of the 

 interests of the agricultural class of the country. During 

 this period, agriculture, no less than other American indus- 

 tries, had been profoundly affected by the great changes 

 that had taken place. The unprecedented^ west ward expan- 

 sion called by some the most significant fact in American 

 history ; the wonderful development of transportation facili- 

 ties ; the enormous influx of immigration ; the invention and 

 use of machinery ; the extensive entr}'- of farm products into 

 commerce both domestic and foreign ; — these and other 

 factors were destined to bring about a new era for agricul- 

 ture in the United States and to bring the rural element in 

 our society directly into contact with the political life and 

 thought of the nation. 



It is not surprising, then, that when a call was sent out 

 in 1852 for a national convention of agriculturalists to meet 

 in Washington, for the purpose of forming a national agri- 

 cultural society, it should have met with a general and ready 

 response. One hundred and fifty delegates representing 

 numerous societies met in June of the same year and formed 

 the proposed national organization. The Hon. Marshall P. 

 Wilder of Boston was elected as the first president. 



A somewhat similar attempt had been made in 1841 to 

 form a national society. The principal immediate objective 

 in view was the securing of all, or part, of the Smitlison 

 bequest, recently received from England ; but when this 

 failed the organization which had been formed quietly went 

 out of existence, after holding only one annual meeting. 



From the first, the United States Agricultural Society, 

 organized in 1852, numbered among its meni])(.'rship many 

 men of national prominence. Many others of equal promi- 



2* Ibid., vol. vii, p. 105 ff. 



