Abstract from the Returns of Agricultural Societies in Massachusetts
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ABSTRACT RETURNS OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES MASSACHUSETTS, FOR THE YEAR 1846. BY JOHN G. PALFREY, SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH DUTTON AND WENTWORTH^ STATE PRINTERS, No. 37, Congress Street. 1847. ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS. Advertisement, ....... Page ix. Returns of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, 1 Report of the Examining Committee on Imported Cattle, 3 " on the Anatomy and Diseases of Animals, 5 " " the introduction of a New Grass, .... 6 " of Mr. Phinney on Imported Cattle, .... 6 Returns of the Essex Agricultural Society, 13 Report on Ploughing, double teams, ..... 13 " " Milch Cows and Heifers, ..... 15 Statements respecting particular cows and heifers, 19 " " Swine, ....... 22 " " Meadow and Swamp Lands, .... 27 Statements of the process of reclaiming meadows and their yield, ....... 28 " " Turning in Crops as a Manure, .... 34 " " the Uses of Salt in Cultivation, .... 39 " " Grain Crops, ...... 40 Statement of a bean crop, .... 40 " " Fruit Trees, ...... 42 " " Fruits, ....... 43 Returns of the Society of Middlesex Husbandmen and Manufacturers, 45 Account of Cattle Show and Fair, ...... 45 Report on Farms, iScc, ....... 45 Statements of the process of reclaiming meadows and their yield, ........ 51 " " Orchards, and statements concerning the management and produce of particular Orchards, . .57 " " Milch Cows, ....... 60 Statements respecting particular cows. .60 " " Agricultural Experiments, . .61 Statements concerning certain experiments, . .62 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. Returns of the Worcester County Agricultural Society, Page 63 Report on Ploughing, ....... 63 " " Fat Cattle, ...... " " Milch Cows, ...... " « Poultry, ....... '' " Butter, ....... " " Cheese, ....... " " Mechanics' Tools and Agricultural Implements, . " " Root Crops, ...... Statements of cultivation and product of carrots and pota toes, ....... " " Experiments with Cut and Uncut Hay, Statements of particular experiments with cut and uncut hay Returns of the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Agricultural So CIETY, .... Report on Domestic Manufactures, . " " Butter and Cheese, " " Stock, .... " " Ploughing, " " Fruits and Vegetables, Returns of the Hampden County Agricultural Society, Report eta Ploughing, " " "Working Oxen, " " Milch Cows, Statements respecting particular cows. " " on Fruits and Flowers, " " Reclaimed Swamp Lands, Statement of the process of reclaiming a piece of swamp land and its yield, " " Reclaiming Waste Land, . Returns of the Berkshire County Agricultural Society, Report on Agricultural Products, " " Sheep, " " Horses, " " Ploughing, " " Domestic Manufactures, << " Butter, Cheese, &c. Returns of the Plymouth County Agricultural Society, Report on Improvements, . Statements of particular experiments, . « " on Fruits and Vegetables, Report of the Supervisor, .... TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vll Statements of experiments in the use of compost manure, Page 131 " of the cultivation of a wheat crop, . 136 " " " of corn crops, and experiments to prove the influence of subsoil ploughing on the corn crop, 137 Returns of the Bristol County Agricultural Society, 142 Report on Ploughing, 142 " « Stock, 143 " " Honey, 144 " " Fruits and Vegetables, 145 " " Manufactures, 146 Returns of the Barnstable County Agricultural Society, 148 Report of premiums awarded for Produce, . 148 Statement of the manufacture of molasses from corn stalks, 148 " " cultivation of cranberries, 149 Report on Milch Cows, ..... 150 Statements respecting particular cows, 150 " « Forest Trees, ..... 151 Statement concerning the raising of pitch pine, 151 Abstract of Premiums offered by Agricultural Societies, in 1846, 155 " " " " awarded " 157 List of Oflicers of Societies for 1846-7, 159 " " the Annual Addresses, and by whom delivered, 162 ADVERTISEMEINT. The Returns from Agricultural Societies required by the Act of 1845, chap. Ill, were all made for the year 1846 within the time specified by that law. The General Court of 1847 has enacted the following law (Chap. 69): AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. Sect. 1. Every agricultural society which shall claim the bounty of the Commonwealth, according to the provisions of the first section of the forty- second chapter of the Revised Statutes, shall, annually, on or before the tenth day of January, file in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth a cer- tificate, signed by the president and treasurer of such society, specifying, un- der oath, the sum actually contributed and put at interest, and then held, well secured as a capital stock. Every such society shall, at the same time, make a full return of its doings, signed by its president and secretary, embracing a statement of the expendi- ture of all money, specifying the nature of the encouragement proposed by the society, the object for which its premiums have been offered, and to whom they have been awarded, and including all reports of committees, and all state- ments of experiments and cultivation, regarded by said president and secretary as worthy of publication. The return, whether in printed or manuscript form, shall be marked in such manner, that those passages in the several reports and statements, deemed by such officers most worthy of public notice, study and application, may be easily distinguished. Sect. 2. The amount of bounty to which any agricultural society may be entitled for the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, shall be as- certained by the certificate to be filed in the month of October, according to the provisions of law as heretofore existing ; and, for the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, and each year thereafter, by the certificate pre- viously filed by such society, according to the provisions of this act. B X ADVEKTISEMENT. Sect. 3. Any agricultural society which shall neglect, in any year, to com- ply with the foregoing provisions, shall forfeit its claim to the bounty of the Commonwealth the year next succeeding. Sect. 4. The Secretary of the Commonwealth is hereby directed to cause to be made and published, in each year, for distribution, as full an abstract as, in his judgment, will be useful, from the returns aforesaid of the agricultural societies. Sect, 5. Any person who shall incur the forfeiture mentioned in the ninth section of the forty-second chapter of the Revised Statutes, may be prosecuted, by complaint before any justice of the peace who shall have jurisdiction there- of; and all forfeitures so recovered shall be, by said justice of the peace, paid over to the county treasurer for the use of the county. Sect. 6. The Secretary of the Commonwealth is hereby directed to trans- mit a copy of this act to the secretary of every incorporated agricultural so- ciety in the Commonwealth, on or before the first day of September next. Sect. 7. The thirty-first chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and forty-two ; also, the one hundred and eleventh chapter of the acts of the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, and all parts of acts hereto- fore passed, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed. Accordingly, the only papers henceforward to be transmitted by Agricultural Societies to the Secretary's office are the certificate and return required in the first section ; and both are to be filed annually, on or before the tenth day of January. But the certificate, to deter- mine the amount of the Commonwealth's bounty for the present year, is to be filed some time in the month of October. Some suggestions concerning the character of the returns hitherto made, and the improvements of which they are susceptible, are con- tained in the following letter from the Hon. Allen W. Dodge, of Ham- ilton, who has again afforded me his valuable aid m the preparation of the Abstract. " In obedience to your request, 1 proceed to give you such views as have sug- gested themselves to me, relative to the agricultural returns, and the improve- ments which may be made in them. The experiment of compiling, in a single volume, the transactions of the several Agricultural Societies in the Common- wealth receiving its bounty, has been made in conformity with the act of March 7, 1845, and has met with the general favor of those interested in the pursuit and the advancement of husbandry among us. In the new volume now issued, exhibiting a summary of the returns of 1846, will be found a rec- ord of the material facts marking the history^ for that year, of the several so- cieties, and pointing ihe way to future progress. It was not, perhaps, to be expected that any great improvement would be exhibited in the returns con- ; ADVERTISEMENT. XI tained in the present volume over those published in the preceding. If the publication of these returns, in the manner contemplated by the act of 1845, is to exert, as it is believed it will, a beneficial influence in this respect, a single year is hardly a sufficient time for its development. Something has been done, but much remains to be accomplished, in the preparation of exact statements, and well matured reports, on almost every subject for which premiums are offered by our Agricultural Societies. It has been suggested, that, in the reports concerning stock and manufactures, it is difficult to select passages worthy of public notice, study and application as the applicability and force of the remarks of the committees on these sub- jects can only be understood by those who have seen the animal or article referred to, and can convey but little information to a stranger. But that little information, like the discovery of a single