245. AGRICULTURE, Societies—[further continued].
Were practical and observing
husbandmen in each county to form themselves
into a society, commit to writing themselves,
or state in conversations at their meetings
to be written down by others, their practices,
and observations, their experiences and
ideas, selections from these might be made
from time to time by every one for his own
use, or by the society or a committee of it,
for more general purposes. By an interchange
of these selections among the societies of the
different counties, each might thus become
possessed of the useful ideas and processes of
the whole; and every one adopt such of them
as he should deem suitable to his own situation.
Or to abridge the labor of such multiplied
correspondences, a central society
might be agreed on to which, as a common
deposit, all the others should send their communications.
The society thus honored by
the general confidence would doubtless feel
and fulfil the duty of selecting such papers as
should be worthy of entire communication, of
extracting and digesting from others whatever
might be useful, and of condensing their
matter within such compass as might reconcile
it to the reading, as well as to the purchase
of the great mass of practical men.
Many circumstances would recommend, for
the central society, that which should be established
in the county of the seat of government.—
Plan for Agricultural Societies. Washington ed. ix, 480.
(1811)
