156 PAST AND PRESENT OF every effort of your invention and your dili¬ gence to increase your manure heap if you wish to avert ruin from yourself, and de¬ terioration and ultimate barrenness from a soil which nature has rendered so easy of cultivation, but which has not that strength and fertility in its component parts to sup¬ ply crops forever without the aid of good farming.' " The pathology of the wheat rust was discussed in the report of 1847, and the tall rank growth of clover in the cereals which man's improvidence has since made impossible was thought to be conduc¬ ive to the disease because of the dampness which resulted from its presence. Again, in 1848, when the wheat crop suffered from weevil and the potatoes were ravaged by blight, the Society came to the defenceless farmer's aid and offered him a remedy. With all the perception of their class, the Society called the attention of their com¬ patriots to the advantages of the corn crop, encouraged them in its production by re¬ porting the achievements of Mr. Higgins , of Lot 15, who in 1848 had grown a ma¬ tured crop of two thousand bushels; and they recommended to the powers the advis¬ ability of securing corn for seed and of spreading information which would ensure intelligent and successful cultivation. In¬ formation from practical men, experimental evidence prepared by the most progressive members, fundamental principles still re¬ vered by present day scientists, and details of operations elementary yet genuine were freely passed on, through limited channels by the faithful institution. A life of usefulness may cease without recognition, but a single mistake is often enough to blight a whole career. The old Agricultural Society had been declining in power and decreasing in usefulness. Much of the work of the Society had been the importation of seed grain, but the inde¬ pendence of progressive and intelligent men asserted itself in the development of pri¬ vate and co-operative enterprise. By the year 1865 the need for this commodity was met by business men and the usefulne» <>f the Society in that direction ended, although live stock importation and education were continued to some extent as features of their work. For some years before the discon¬ tinuance of the old Society local organiza¬ tions had been gaining ground and were ask¬ ing for incorporation with a central execu¬ tive institute. Branches were to be located at Princetown , Cascumpec , Souris and Georgetown . In 1848—one year previous to this agitation—Princetown Society passed a resolution antagonistic to the old society. Seven years later the old friend of our principal industry was denied government patronage; the government grant was with¬ drawn and the new organizations undertook to carry on the work of agricultural educa¬ tion. For many years the public accounts show the sum of £32 paid annually to the Northern, Cascumpec , Central, and societies, proof enough that from the ruins of the parent society new organizations were be¬ ing reared to lift agriculture to the dignity of a profession. These societies, with the Stock Farm and the Exhibition Commis¬ sion, were now to carry on the work of the parent institution, organizations which cul¬ minated in our present Farmers' Institute system. The "Stock Farm " is a household term in Prince Edward Island . In 1865 the sum of one thousand pounds was granted in fa-