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mainder of the year, especially the comparatively 

 leisure season to fanners — the winter — would 

 more effectually sustain and direct these impulses 

 into fresh and practical channels. In this way 

 the alleged sluggishness of the agricultural mind 

 would be quickened, practical men would com- 

 pare notes, and each w^ould inspirit and improve 

 the other by the mutual interchange of thought 

 and the teachings of experience. Thus the foun- 

 dations of agricultural knowledge would become 

 broader and deeper, popular fallacies corrected, a 

 pleasing social interest strengthened, a taste for 

 reading and observation elicited, and the prof- 

 fered aids of science with increased earnestness 

 invoked. I am not aware to what extent " Far- 

 mers' Clubs," as they are termed, exist in this 

 country; — the one in the city of New York has 

 for many years had a wide reputation ; and I have 

 felt much pleasure and derived considerable profit 

 from reading tin reports of meetings for discus- 

 sion during the exhibition-week of your Society, 

 and also of its winter-meetings in Albany. If 

 the smaller societies in the country woula gen- 

 erally follow out this principle, a fresh and most 

 salutary impulse Avould be given to agriculture, 

 and young men engaged in the pursuit would 

 take a greater and more rational interest in its 



