From William H. Brewer, "Agricultural Societies, What They Are and What They Have Done,"

in Connecticut Board of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1880-1881, pp. 98-116.

The two great means of diffusing knowledge among men are societies and the periodical press. These are the two great engines of modem progress; but as the Agricultural Press will be discussed by others at this convention, I will drop it entirely with merely the remark that in praising the functions and results of the one, I do not wish to be misunderstood as to the merits or usefulness of the other. .

The changes in farming in these latter times have been so marvelously great that it is probable that there are men now living who have seen in their lifetime greater changes in the methods and appliances of farming than took place in all the centuries before, down from the time when Abel tilled the soil. This change in farming has been one of the developments of the age in which we live, and has gone along with the progress of science and invention, but it has been mostly through societies that the knowledge acquired in modem times has been carried to the men actually on the farms, and moreover, these same societies have stimulated farmers in a great variety of other ways.

We now see so many separate societies at work, with such a variety of aims, that it is hard for us to appreciate how very modem they mostly are, at least in their present form. So, a few words on the development of societies in general, and of Agricultural Societies in particular, will be a fit introduction to what I wish to say of their past work and present uses....

Late in the last century, a "Board of Agriculture" was formed in Great Britain, and it was the earnest wish of Washington, while president, to have such established in this. In his message to Congress in Dec., 1796, he recommended the establishment of a national "Board of Agriculture" for the United States. More than two years earlier, writing to Sir John Sinclair, the president of the British Board of Agriculture, he used language which might well form the motto of any modem society: "I know of no pursuit in which more real and important service can be rendered to any country, than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman's care. Had Congress listened to his recommendation, and then, when three months later that prince of farmers retired from the presidential office, had he been placed at the head of such a board, we cannot help but picture to ourselves "what might have been," in such an event, and contrast it with what has been in our later developed national "Agricultural Department."

I know of no agricultural societies proper, being organized in the American colonies, before the Revolutionary War. But long before that date there were societies formed in the mother country, to promote special objects pertaining to the agricultural resources of the colonies. For instance, a society was instituted in London in 1753, for the Encouragement of Arts., Manifactures and Commerce. which published in 1761 a list of "Premiums offered for the advantage of the British Colonies," the object of which was to make the colonies more profitable to England herself, by stimulating the production of certain raw materials she wanted. Such premiums or prizes as these were offered: 1100 sterling, first prize, for the production of cochineal, not less than 25 lbs., in South Carolina, within three years of 1759. For silk in Georgia, (3d. per lb.), for planting and securing olive trees southward of the Delaware river, for the production of hemp, barilla, wine, raisins, opium, scammony, etc., etc. Under the stimulus of prizes, and with the facilities offered in part by such societies and in part by the great commercial companies, spices and many commercial and agricultural plants were tried in all the colonies, from Georgia to Massachusetts. Cotton, hemp, millet, rape, kohl, lucerne, sainfoin, poppies, woad, are among the plants tried over and over again in this State and allspice, pepper, cinnamon, indigo, nutmegs, etc.,. etc., in the southern colonies long before the Revolutionary War. Some of these failed because of the natural defect of climate, some because not suited to the wants of the colonists, and some, indeed many, would-be industries or productions were smothered by government interference or forbidden outright....

There was a society for the promotion of silk culture in this State, formed about the middle of the last century. I do not know the precise date, or whether it related to the whole State, or only New Haven County. Eliot speaks of it in 1759, when he was one of the officers to distribute the premiums it gave.

The attempts to grow silk were prolonged for many years, particularly about New Haven, and statements occur which lead us to think that at one time mulberry trees were planted along the north side of the public green in that city, and the Connecticut Journal, of August 25, 1790, says that "about sixty families within the city of New Haven, during the present season of 1790, wherein about 420,000 silk worms were raised by the following persons," etc., and then follows a list of the persons, and the number of worms raised by each.

It was not until after we had achieved our national independence, and the country began to rapidly grow under the stimulus of its newly acquired liberty, that any of the agricultural societies began to be formed, which were the parents of those we have now. Even after the political state of the country was favorable, it took a long time for the people to learn how to form such societies, how to run them successfully, and how to profitably use them.

It is uncertain where the first American Agricultural Society was formed, or when. Some say that the first was formed in Charleston, S.C., in 1784, while others date the founding of this society in 1795, thus making it the fifth in point of time.

As to others begun in the last century, we have fuller data.

" The Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture" was instituted in 1785, and is still in existence. So far as I know, this is the oldest agricultural society in America.

Of more interest is the experience of the next society, as it illustrates so well both the changes as adapted to suit the times, and also the results.

The next movement was " At a Meeting of a respectable Number of Citizens, at the Senate Chamber, in the City of New York, for the Purpose of instituting a Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and Manufactures; Mr. Chancellor Livingston, Mr. Simeon De Witt, and Mr. Samuel L. Mitchell," were appointed a committee to prepare rules and regulations. At a subsequent meeting, held February 26, 179 1, the celebrated "Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures'' of New York was formally organized, adopted rules, and chose officers. The eighth "Rule, provided for a Committee of Publication," to select such of the papers and works of the society as merited printing, and in 1792, the first volume of "Transactions" appeared, followed from time to time by others. These were small quartos, and, so far as I know, were the beginning of that great mass of literature, officially put out since by our various agricultural societies and kindred organizations, and in quality of material and soundness of doctrine might well stand as a pattern for some of its modem descendants. These "Transactions"' were so sought after, that a second edition was published in 1801, in the more convenient octavo form which all the official "agricultural reports" I am acquainted with, have since followed.

The seventh "Rule" provided that "the society shall parcel the State into districts" with a special secretary in each, and this led in due time to the formation of county societies, of which more anon.

The society was incorporated by act of legislature, March 12, 1793, but the society expired in 1804 by the limitation of its charter, and April 2d of that year an act was passed incorporating a new "Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts, in the State of New York," with essentially the same officers that the old one had, the Hon. Robert R. Livingston being president from the beginning in 1791, until his death in 1813, after which he was succeeded by Simeon De Witt, formerly vice-president. Three octavo volumes of "Transactions" were published between 1807 and 1818, at which date it closed its existence. It was less distinctly agricultural than its predecessor, but "although the title of the society points at the useful arts generally, it is intended to consider agriculture the chief." But, as a matter of fact, the society interested itself more in manufactures, and in 1808 an act was passed giving prizes or premiums for the manufacture of woolen goods, to stimulate both agriculture and manufactures. The first awards, in 1809, went into twenty-two counties, in 1810 thirty-two counties competed, and in 1811, thirty-nine counties. Meantime, merino sheep began to be grown, and the next year, 1812, a new law was passed giving premiums for broadcloth, to encourage the raising of merino sheep as well. This society expired by limitation, and Governor Clinton, in his annual message, January, 1818, recommended the establishment of a "State Board of Agriculture," a measure long before advocated by leading farmers. The politicians opposed it, and combining with such suspicious farmers as feared that such a board might lead to a landed aristocracy or some other evil, they in March of that year killed the bill by this amendment: "Be it further enacted that the farmers of this state be permitted to manage their own farms in their own way." You notice that the fathers of the modem politicians were already in the field, and a writer of the time says that the amendment "was carried by a thundering majority." But the matter would not rest and the next year, April 19 1819, a "State Board of Agriculture" was created and an appropriation of $10,000 was made from the State treasury to aid the county societies in offering premiums. This was, I think, the beginning of State aid to county societies. This board published three volumes of "Memoirs," the first in 1821, the last in 1826. This board ceased to live in 1825, and a legislative committee reported that in the six years of its existence the total amount appropriated by the State and expended by the societies amounted to upwards of $52,000, of which over $46,000 was paid to county societies. These various agricultural societies, more than any one other cause, secured to New York the leading rank in agriculture, population, and wealth. I find, in the publications of that time, very frequent allusions to the importance of preventing the "depopulation," by farmers emigrating further westward, as was then going on to such an extent from New England. And the argument then used was that, the way to do this was to improve the agriculture at home. It was then claimed that this action of the agricultural societies was not only improving the agriculture but was preventing this depopulation (as it was called) and that it called emigrants from other states. As a matter of fact, New York, which was the fourth state in population in 1790, and the third in 1800, had come to the front by 1810, and has since remained the "Empire State." The act creating the State Board was amended March 24, 1820, and the charter expired in 1825. There was no society organized to take its place until 1832. Feb. 14th of that year a convention met at Albany, at which thirty-one counties were represented, and means taken to organize a society, and as a result, the "New York State Agricultural Society" was incorporated by act passed April 26, 1832. This act was amended Feb. 10, 1841, giving the society essentially the shape it now has. Now it began to hold annual exhibitions, since so noted, and to publish those volumes of "Transactions" so familiar in all agricultural libraries.

To return to the earlier societies. The next society in the United States was "The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture," which was incorporated in 1792, and "diffused much practical information by means of a series of papers known as the Agricultural Repository," and afterwards by a publication styled the Massachusetts Journal of Agriculture. This, too, after changes suggested by experience, is, I think, still in existence.

The next society was organized in this State in 1794, of which I will speak more fully by and by.

So far as I have learned, these five societies were all that were formed in the first twenty-five years of our national existence. Some of them extended their operations beyond their own State, the Philadelphia society awarded a gold medal in 1790 to a Rhode Island farmer and the Massachusetts society did the same to Col. Humphries in this State, for his importation of merino sheep.

In the centennial year, the U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture published a " List of Agricultural Societies and Farmers' Clubs * * * on the books of the Department of Agriculture, July 4, 1876, being the Centennial year of American Independence." I have enumerated the only societies, five in number, formed during the first quarter-century. According to the list referred to, of organizations in existence in 1876, and on the books of the Department, sixteen were formed in the next quarter-century, 1802 to 1826 inclusive; 376 in the next quarter., 1827 to 1851; and over 1,500 were formed in the last quarter, 1852 to 1876. In this list, forty-seven societies are enumerated in Connecticut, of which only six were organized before 1850, and seventeen before 1860.

Inasmuch as one of the original five societies on this grand list started in this State, something more of its history may interest you It's "Transactions " published in 1802 tells us that "A number of citizens, from different towns in the State of Connecticut, convened at Wallingford, on the 12th day of August, A.D. 1794, for the purpose of forming a society for promoting agriculture; and having shown their approbation of the plan proposed, appointed a committee to draft a constitution for the society and report to the next meeting. On the 11th day of November, 1794, the committee, before appointed, reported," etc. In short, the society was organized. They published one volume of "Transactions of the Society for Promoting Agriculture in the State of Connecticut," in 1802, a quarto pamphlet of but nineteen pages of printed matter. I infer that its first president was James Wadsworth, as I find his name under the advertisements calling meetings in 1796 and for some years later. It met at various places, at Wallingford, Cheshire, New Haven, etc., and extended its influence and operations over various parts of the State, although most of its meetings (if not all) were held in New Haven county. A new constitution was made in 1803, and its business records exist in manuscript from that date. A library was started in 1807, but I cannot find what became of it or that the papers read at the meetings have been preserved. Advertisements for calls of meetings as early as 1799 speak of it as " The Agricultural Society of the State of Connecticut," and the manuscript records state that Sept. 10, 1817, a committee was appointed to apply to the Legislature for an act of incorporation, which committee reported at a meeting on March 10, 1818, that the Legislature had "declined incorporating us by the name of The Connecticut Agricultural Society, but were willing to grant an act of incorporation under the name of The Agricultural Society of New Haven." The society voted "to accept such act and name," and it still exists as the flourishing County Society of New Haven. But two societies in the United States are older, but this has had a continuous, living existence from the time of its first organization to the present without other break than came from the act of incorporation which changed its name and in effect restricted its operations to one county.

But its influence has been much wider. What it has been on the state and on the world we can never know; but my belief is that it has been especially great and far-reaching. Col. Humphreys was long an active member, and for a time its president, but the society had been in existence, and was moving our farming interests for eight years before the importation of his merinos, and nearly twenty years before those other importations of merinos into New Haven, which several importations practically laid the foundations of the so-called American Merino Sheep, which breed has done more during the last forty or fifty years to improve the wool of the world than all the other breeds combined.

And we can trace its influence in other directions also, not only in the prosperity of this State, for it was active just at the time when Connecticut was powerfully influencing the West through emigration from our farmers, and perhaps the South also, through the cotton-gin.

It will be noticed that during the first twenty-five years, the few societies were general, and belonged to states. If any county societies were formed before 1800, 1 have no account of -them, but very soon after that we hear of them, and their formation characterizes this second period. I think it probable that the first county societies were started on the Hudson river. The famous Berkshire (Mass.) society started in 1807. The beginning may be said to have been the exhibition of two merino sheep, "under the big elm tree," in the fall of that year, by Elkanah Watson. Its first formal cattle-show, however, was held in September, 1810. This was not the first cattle-show in the country (as many believe), for the Ulster County Plebeian, (Kingston, N.Y.), in a notice of that show, says, that "the laudable example exhibited by our sister county of Dutchess, in instituting a society for agricultural fairs, has been adopted in various parts of the country, with a zeal that insures the most extensive benefits," etc. The work went on actively, and Elkanah Watson says, "on the 22d of October 1819, the first boat sailed on the Erie Canal from Rome to Utica. It was drag'd by a single horse, trotting on the embankment, in the tow-path. It was an elegant boat, constructed to carry passengers.... The scene was truly sublime.... This was a proud month for the State of New York. While new agricultural societies were exhibiting in every direction, " etc., etc.

The fact that at the organization of the State Board of Agriculture of New York, January 10, 1820, twenty-six county societies were represented by their officers, gives us another view of the activity of that period, and an article "on the utility of cattle-shows," by the President of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal for January, 1825, says, "it is no longer necessary to justify these exhibitions, since fifty millions of men in Europe and America have sanctioned them by their adoption," that in France there are about ninety (one in each department), in England not so many, but they are numerous and very efficient, "and the United States have at this moment nearly fifty public exhibitions of this description."

Plowing matches also began about this time, along with the fairs. The first plowing match I know of in this State is described in the Connecticut Journal (New Haven) of July 12, 1810. It took place on the Fourth of July, started by "the farmers, shepherds, mechanics, and manufacturers, in Col. Humphreys' employ." The account says, that "at dawn of day, in a field of eighteen acres marked out into lands of one acre each, fourteen plows started, each in its own land, " etc. The first prize was won by a farmer who used oxen and had come three miles, and who finished his acre before nine o'clock. Horse, mule, and ox teams were used. The dinner for one hundred and fifty-two persons was "prepared hot on the ground by means of a portable Rumford kitchen." The account cited goes into full details of the affair, which, although not under the auspices of a society, yet shows the drift of the times.

Agricultural balls too came into fashion during this period, in connection with local societies, and Mr. Watson gives some amusing anecdotes of the haps and mishaps arising from them, particularly of his sending a package of such ball-tickets to the president of a county society in New York State, who chanced to be a Quaker, and the package was unfortunately opened by his good wife, who was a Quakeress preacher of some repute, to the great dismay of the family and confusion of the zealous sender.

During the next quarter century, 1827 to 1851, societies multiplied by hundreds, and town societies and farmers' clubs began to be noticed. It is possible that farmers' clubs began much earlier, for I have found in the Connecticut Journal of March 30, 1791, reprinted from the Gazette of 'the United States, a letter about a Fanners' Club, but whether this describes a genuine club in operation, or merely what might be, I do not know, nor have I any data as to when these useful organizations actually began.

I have spent so much time on this historical sketch, because I felt that it was important for an intelligent grasp of the real uses and functions of agricultural societies, and under this head, I include all organizations which have for their immediate object the promotion of the interests of the tiller of the soil or grower of live-stock. They are so numerous, so varied in their character, so wide-reaching in their operations and influences that it would take more than one lecture to describe their mere characters and special aims.

We have national societies and associations of various kinds. State agricultural societies, boards of agriculture, regional societies (like the New England Society, or that of the Ohio Valley), county and town societies, farmers' clubs, horticultural societies and fruit-growers' associations. Cotton-planters and canegrowers have each their associations. There are dairymen's associations and various kinds of organizations devoted to live-stock. Nearly every improved breed of livestock has its particular and separate society to promote its interests, Ayrshires, Merinoes, Short-horns, Berkshires, trotters, etc., etc., has each its society or association. There are poultry societies and pigeon associations. There are granges and congresses, and so on - indeed, it seems as if each and every department and sub-department of this great industry had its special organization, to promote its particular interests in such ways as the associated wisdom of the society can suggest, and the combined powers of its members effect. And these differ as widely in their scope as in their aims. Some are as broad as the nation, others as narrow as a neighborhood. Some are so general as to relate to everything that is grown on the farm or that can be used there by the farmer and his family. Others are as special as a single breed of pigs. In numbers, probably more than 2,500 of one kind and another exist to-day in the United States.

Now, how have they operated to promote agriculture and educate the farmer?

I will not claim to tell all the ways, nor give in detail all their beneficent workings. I hope to call attention to enough of them to make you all think of other ways which I have left out, and which possibly may have not occurred to me.

First, and most important, they get farmers together to learn from each other, each to see what others are doing and how they do it, and to have their wits sharpened by the rubbing of mind against mind.

The farmer's work is most of it solitary, or nearly so; at least, it is not performed by large numbers of men together. From the very nature of the vocation, farmers see little of each other directly in their business. The merchant, the manufacturer, the professional man, each is thrown in contact with many other men of various vocations, and with men of their own calling. They are also thrown into very sharp face to face competition, amounting to almost conflict. The battles in the professions and in the arenas of trade are mostly battles between men -it is individual intellect opposed to individual intellect. But from the necessities of his calling, the farmer's battles are mostly with the forces of nature, and where he carries on his fight comparatively alone and in silence. He thus learns to rely so much on his own private judgment, or it may be on his individual whims, that he is particularly liable to overrate his own judgment as compared with his neighbor's, and as a consequence to think that his own ways and methods are the best, and that his own experience is better than that of others. It is this that makes the calling so very conservative.

This tendency is perhaps increased by their actual intelligence in this country, where the farmers as a class are more intelligent, in the best sense of that word, than any other class which has so much of hand labor (or, as we call it, "hard Work"), to perform. Combining the offices of overseer and manager of the business with that of the skilled workman, he is at once the employer and the laborer. He must be personally familiar with a greater variety of manual operations than any other laboring man or mechanic is required to know, he must exercise his judgement in a greater variety of ways, and, as before said, with less contact with other men than other business men have, - all this makes him peculiarly liable to underrate the experiences of others and to become prejudiced in favor of his own ways.

Now, there is one, and only one way to remedy this, and that is, to meet his equals, his peers in his own calling, see what they do, how they do it, and with what success. For this purpose no other plan has yet been found so efficient as agricultural societies and exhibitions, of one kind and another.

Theoretically, it would seem as if all this could be got from the printed book or agricultural newspaper. These should be in every farmer's house, and have their effect; but they do not and cannot do the work I am speaking of. We need to meet men face to face, talk with them, wrestle with them in argument. It is so in all other vocations; it must be so in ours. It is just as in teaching and spreading religious truths: the printed tract can never take the place of the preached word, nor the religious newspaper ever take the place of the living preacher. Actual progress is most rapid when both go together.

Next in importance, men are educated by seeing things. It may be tools or machines to do work, it may be animals, it may be fruit, and along with this is the stimulus of prizes to establish standards of excellence. The stimulus of premiums is not to be measured by the money value of the prizes won. Here, as everywhere else, a prize won, means a victory won, and it is this which gives it its chief value. I question if all the money won at agricultural fairs more than half pays the actual expenses of the winners in entering the object exhibited, caring for it there, and getting it home again. It is not the cup, won at a boat-race, that incites young men to do so much labor, spend so much time and money, and exercise so much self-denial while training, but its possession is the sign of victory and so of the prizes won at our fairs.

In previous ages the stimulus of rivalry did not work so strongly among farmers as among men in most other vocations, partly because of oppressive laws, and partly because of the state of society, but now agricultural societies and exhibitions are stimulating this, because of the call for excellence in such a variety of products; indeed, a successful fair must offer many premiums, for many things, and be attended by many people. The very crowd educates itself, and what a remarkable kind of crowd it calls together! Where else and when else do we see such vast crowds with so little disorder, and so little need of police repression, as at our modem fairs or exhibitions?

Again, with modem means of production, competition is sharper than ever before. Steam transportation has put the farmers of widely separated regions into direct competition with each other, and now they need societies and exhibitions even more than before to bring them into contact with new and competing methods.

When agricultural societies began, there was but little agricultural literature, and they published but little before the second quarter-century (1802 to 1825), into which I have divided my historical sketch, and this second period is the most instructive for us to consider, as it shows so well how societies work in diffusing knowledge, and what the effect is, for that quarter closed before railroads and steam-power and other modem things had affected agriculture in this country, and before we had any distinctive agricultural press, for of all our present vast accumulation of agricultural literature, a very small proportion indeed was printed before 1826.

Three of the five original societies of the first period, ceased to exist in second period or else changed in their methods. They were either reorganized to adapt themselves to new conditions, or they simply ceased to exist, to give place to a new society better adapted to the work, for it was usually easier to form a new society than to remodel an old one. It was during this second period that the societies began to be formed of the kind we are now familiar with: meetings for papers, discussions, exhibitions and fairs, with prizes and premiums, and at the close of the period, they were well at work. A few tools and implements were exhibited at the meetings in Albany as early as 1796 or 1797, and probably at the other societies also; but regular exhibitions and cattle-shows, such as we know them, began in this second period, and at its close, it is said that fifty societies had held exhibitions.

Now, what was the actual result of all this? What was the state of agriculture in this country at the close of this period of a quarter-century in 1826, compared with its state at its beginning in 1801 ?

First and most wonderful was the rapid and universal introduction of better farm tools, implements, and machines. At the beginning of this period, the wicker fan, the wooden plow, wooden pitchfork, and the hand-rake, were in universal use, the cradle had as yet but partly supplanted the sickle, the grain-drill was known but not used, the flail or the tramping of animals were the almost universal means of threshing. All of these had been invented before, some long before, all were known to a few persons in this country and yet very few used them. To the mass of farmers at the beginning of this period they were practically unknown; at its end they were in common use, and except the grain-drill and threshing-machine, the new and improved implements had entirely supplanted the old and former kinds, and the methods of farming were practically revolutionized.

Why, even four-wheeled wagons were rare in this State at the beginning of this period; many whole towns were without a single one until long after 1801. For many years I have been questioning old farmers about the tools and farm-implements of their boyhood, and the date of the introduction of improved kinds, and they all tell practically the same story, that the implements had long been known or heard of, then some would be exhibited or used at fairs, soon every one began talking about them, a few enterprising farmers would buy them, and then, almost suddenly, everybody else would want them. Of all these, the cast-iron plow perhaps wrought the greatest change, and met too the greatest opposition to its introduction. Yet in fifteen years from the time it began to be seen, it had found its way to perhaps nineteen-twentieths of the farms.

Remember that all these tools and machines had been invented and somewhat used before, why were they not generally used before, and why did they then spread so suddenly into common use? What was the moral agency which so rapidly changed this most conservative of industries? My own belief, founded on a careful study of the agriculture and agricultural features of that day, is that the great moving agent in this revolution was agricultural societies and their exhibitions; other elements helped, of course, but this was the great one.

The agricultural newspapers, now such a means of carrying useful information to the farmers' houses, then scarcely existed at all. It was the seeing of things and talking with the persons who used them that led to the rapid introduction of better tools and machines. Men would see them at the agricultural exhibitions, then would talk about them, then use them, and once used, men would never go back to the poorer methods again.

The next most important influence (perhaps the most important in the end although not so obvious at first), was that it destroyed the intense prejudice against what was stigmatized as "book farming, " and this paved the way for agriculture to practically apply the truths of science. When these societies began, this prejudice existed all through the masses. How very intense it was and in what contempt book farmers were held, we find hard now to appreciate.

But just before this century began, these societies began to publish papers, memoirs," "transactions," pamphlets, and other documents. As these mostly emanated from farmers themselves, many of whom were men well known as statesmen or venerated for their patriotism, and as this printed matter was put out by societies composed of farmers, they broke down the prejudice against "bookfarming," so-called - at least, against books about farming, and as that prejudice melted away it left the soil of the public mind ready to receive the truths of science; it also paved the way for the agricultural newspaper. These would have been useless before. Agricultural societies had to plow the soil first, and turn it up to the light, and it was like the breaking up of an old sod. But when well broken, science might furnish the seed and the agricultural newspapers scatter it, and find a congenial soil for it to take root. If societies had done nothing else than this, it would have been a glorious result in itself, and well paid for all the work it cost.

Moreover, the societies themselves have been a great source of agricultural literature; the immense mass of official "Reports" that have been printed doubtless contain much chaff with the grain, but in all farming operations we must clean the good wheat from the worthless chaff, we must weed our fields and weed our stock; so too, if the literature of our societies has to be winnowed, that is no sign that it lacks good grain.

Again, the getting together of the influential men of this class, tended to impress farmers themselves with the importance and dignity of their calling, and this I think was no small gain. Washington was an officer in one society, John Adams was at one time President of the Massachusetts society, Mr. Madison delivered addresses before another; it is only in modem times, and only a certain class of modem newspapers that sneers at a president of the United States for delivering "the address" at an agricultural exhibition, or even encouraging it by his presence. Many a man has been cheered in his calling when he sees what respectable company he is in.

Again, the societies did much to improve the varieties of grain; or rather, to spread the knowledge of the better kinds. In accounts of the meetings of societies at this early period, I find frequent accounts of improved varieties of grain being exhibited, and often of seed being distributed. It is mentioned that farmers took home with them new kinds of grain to try them.

Along with this was the decrease in the cultivation of certain old-world plants long tried here, but which we now hear nothing of. Indeed, in the publications of these very societies, in New York and New England, we find papers on the cultivation of luceme, vetches, spelt, rape, spurry, poppies, madder, woad, etc., etc. Some of these plants had been under trial here for more than a hundred years; and under the old system of things we would have been trying them yet, had it not been for these influences at work which tended to eliminate the least profitable, by teaching to profit by the experiences and failures of others.

With live-stock the good effects were even more marked than with grain; for at the fairs the better kinds of animals would be seen by the farmers present, the breeds compared with each other, intelligent discussion provoked, and the public thus educated as to what good stock really was; every one could see it, and see the differences between the good and the poor. We find all over the country importations of all kinds of improved animals. Then was that great importation of merino sheep, as well as other breeds; short-horns and various breeds of stock began to come. Frank Forester says that there were more thoroughbred horses in this country before 1820 than there were thirty years later. But it was with sheep, cattle, and hogs that the effect was the most marked.

I well remember the first short-horn bull I ever saw. A new county society had just been formed, my father was one of the originators and officers; a fair was held, and a shorthorn bull was exhibited. An illustrious farmer of that county, Mr. Ezra Cornell (later the founder of Cornell University), had just bought the bull "Arab, " the first thoroughbred short-horn that was brought into that county. I was a very small lad then, for that was over forty years ago, but I well remember the crowds that stood around that animal all day, the curiosity to see a bull that cost several hundred dollars, the critical eye with which he was examined, and the comments on him. The society had offered a big prize -I mean big for such a society - for a short-horn bull to be shown at that fair, and that prize, I afterwards learned, was the incentive to that bull's introduction just then. That bull was the lion for that day. But the farmers were not so well satisfied with scrub stock after that; in a few years short-horns were no curiosity there, and the improvement in the quality of the stock in the next twenty years was worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars to that community. I dare say that half of the older men who now hear me could tell some similar story. Elkanah Watson bought two merino sheep in the fall of 1807, and as they were the first introduced into that county he exhibited them under the big elm in Pittsfield, and that started the celebrated Berkshire society.

I need not dwell on the influence fairs still have in spreading a knowledge of machines and appliances; the host of agents at every fair, however small, with all kinds of machines, from a patent apple-corer or pot-washer to a steam thresher or patent ditching-machine, is evidence enough that the manufacturers of to-day believe, from experience, that this is a great and sure way to get a knowledge of their wares before the people. And we all know the eagerness of breeders of fine stock to exhibit and thus advertise their animals.

Again, no other one thing has done so much to spread a knowledge of fruit and good vegetables among farmers and to stimulate their cultivation, as well as to educate the people as to the character and appearance of the different varieties. I have included the modem horticultural societies in this general sketch, for they are so intimately connected; moreover, all the principal agricultural societies have a horticultural department, and the exhibition of fruit and vegetables has so long been made a feature that the common style of cheap wit expended on agricultural exhibitions, is to allow them as mere shows of big squashes or overgrown turnips.

Not the least of the beneficent effects of annual exhibitions has been the effect on the farmers' families, particularly on the boys. After the harder work of the summer is passed, how the "fair day" is looked forward to as a grand gala day, and after it is passed, how much there has been seen and heard to talk about. It would indeed be a sad day for farmers' boys if fairs were abolished.

I shall say but little of the more special associations, important though they are, - I mean such organizations as poultry societies, horticultural societies, associations for the cultivation of special crops, or for the promotion of special breeds of live-stock. Such associations have done great work, and they must continue to increase as farming becomes more and more specialized.

This tendency to greater specialization, that is, to the growing of fewer and fewer kinds of crops, is one that is most marked, and while it is mostly brought about by modem phases of trade and commerce, fairs have tended to increase it. We do not cultivate so many kinds of crops to-day as we did fifty or seventy-five years ago. I have already explained how the societies and their exhibitions tended to eliminate or weed out our less profitable crops, until many have passed so completely out of sight that we now rarely even hear of them here, and the younger generation does not even know their looks.

Without attempting to enumerate more of the uses, - what are the duties of farmers towards societies? The answer is easy - sustain them and attend them. If you have anything to say, why say it. If you have anything to show, show it; above all things, don't stay at home and grumble. It is bad enough to go to the meeting or fair and grumble, but it is worse to stay at home, for at the fair the most stubborn and self conceited man may learn something in spite of himself.

There are probably 800 or 1,000 exhibitions devoted entirely or in part to the interests of agriculture, held in the United States every year, and probably five or more millions of people see something of them. It would be passing strange if in all these, voluntary gatherings as they are, and pertaining to such a variety of interests and multitude of details, it would be strange, I say, if, something did not sometimes creep in that had better be left out; but how very little there is of this compared with all that is meritorious! Taken all in all, their work and their record has been a glorious one, and they will continue to be a prominent feature in our progressing civilization.