TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY: WITH THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNTY SOCIETIES. AND KINDRED ASSOCIATIONS. JOHN A. KENNICOTT, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, IN CHARGE. VOLUME I. 1853-54. SPRINGFIELD, ILL. LANPHIER & WALKER, PRINTERS FOR THE STATE. 1855. EDITOR'S NOTICE. The first volume of "The Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society," is respectfully submitted to the people of the state. I believe that it will be found highly interesting to farmers, mechanics and fruit growers, and well worthy of the notice of readers generally. At the close of the volume will be found catalogues of animals observed in the extreme southern and northern portions, as a first contribution to the natural history of the state. The speeches, letters, reports of committees, &c., scattered through the volume, will be found full of interest; and the original essays, towards the close, are of the most valuable and reliable character--worth much more, alone, than the entire cost of the volume to the people of the state. And yet the book is not all the executive commitce of the state society proposed to make it, nor quite equal to the desires and intentions of the editor in charge. With three exceptions, all the essays were procured by the present corresponding secretary, between the middle of October and last of December, 18541, and submitted to the general assembly, at the opening of the session of 1855. The reports of county socioles, or the matter from which the notices were made up, was mostly collected by Bronson Murray, the former corresponding secretary, and prepared and arranged for the printers, by my friend, W. F. M. Arny-to whom I am also indebted for the copious index at the close of the volume. I may observe, too, that a delay of three weeks, waiting for a supply of printing paper, has compelied the closing of the work, while one long, and a number of short essays, prepared for the |