22 AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

personal; provided that the annual income of the said real and per- sonal estate did not exceed the sum of L10,000; and also to sell, alien, devise, or dispose of the same estate, real and personal, not using the same in trade or commercè.

No society in the Union, perhaps, has contributed so much to pro-

mote its object as the one under consideration. The trustees, by prudent care and good management, have not only ever had a surplus of funds in their treasury, obtained through donations from generous and public-spirited gentlemen and by annual assessments on the members, but they have exerted its beneficial effects by holding public exhibitions and offering rewards for the encouragement of agri- culture and the arts, the results of which have been made known to the world through its journals. A considerable portion of the moneys accumulated has been expended in importing improved breeds of domestic animals for the free use of the State; agricultural imple- ments and machinery of approved construction, to serve as models from which others might be manufactured; the standard works on European agriculture; and in sending agents abroad for acquiring agricultural information on such topies as might prove useful at home. The attention of the trustees has long been directed to the important and disputed question, how far and in what way the primitive breeds of cattle of New England may be improved by the admixture of foreign races, and more particularly, which of these races, from its valuable qualities for work or for the dairy, as well as its capacity of thriving in that climate, and under the degree of care and protection which can be conveniently given to it by the farmers, would best re- pay the expenses and trouble necessarily incident to its first introduc- tion. These motives, as is well known, led the society, some 12 years ago, to purchase and import several fine animals of the North Devons and Ayrshires, which were placed in charge of a responsible person for breeding. As soon as this stock was sufficiently multiplied, pairs of one or the other of these breeds were distributed to each of the county societies of that State, for further experiment. Subse- quently, another importation was made of the Jersey or Alderney breed, for similar purposes as above.

In December, 1793, a circular was issued by several members of this society, residing in the county of Middlesex, inviting other mem- bers to lend their aid in taking such measures as would appear calcu- culated to promote and, in general, to improve the husbandry of that county. On the 27th of October, in the year following, a new society was fully organized, appointing committees to receive communica- tions upon agricultural subjects, to hold meetings,&c., the latter of which were afterwards held three times a year. In 1804, this society was duly incorporated by the legislature, and, so far as known, was the first county agricultural association formed in the United States.

On the 12th of March, 1798, the legislature of New York passed an act establishing a„‧Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures and Arts;“ and on the 2d of April, 1804, another, entitled“An act to incorporate a Society for the Promotion of Useful