460 [Senate 



Among the premium crops were, winter wheat 44| and 44| bushels 

 per acre ; spring wheat 30i and 28 J ; rye 41| and 35| ; oats 86| ; 

 barley 45; and corn 131|, 1284 and 121 shelled bushels per acre. 

 It is deserving of note, as a signal evidence of what the " act for the 

 encouragement of agriculture" is accomplishing, that the three last 

 of these crops were reared on soil and with a mode of cultivation 

 closely analogous to a crop of 115 bushels, which drew the first pre- 

 mium in this county two years ago, the truth of the statement re- 

 specting which, though amply attested, was doubted by some of our 

 citizens. These crops, which are certainly magnificent for the " worn 

 out hills of old Washington," have evidently resulted from closely 

 following the details given respecting the premium crop of 1843. 



The amount of funds at the society's disposal has been $363.46, 

 of which over $300 has been paid in premiums, $44 for printing 

 handbills and circulars, and other incidental expenses, leaving a ba- 

 lance now on hand of $13.46. 



Officers. — Abira Eldridge, North White Creek, President ; L. 

 B. Armstrong, John Savage, Henry Holmes, Harvey Brown, Vice 

 Presidents; James Savage, Argyle, Corresponding Secretary ; John 

 McDonald, Salfm, Recording Secretary ; John McNaughton, Trea- 

 surer. 



It is a source of no ordinary gratification to witness the state of 

 palmy prosperity the society has attained, and the marked indications 

 which it has received from year to year, of a steady advancement in 

 the public esteem. Those bitter taunts that were flung out when it 

 was first organized — that it was " a mushroom affair" — that it would 

 " die out in three or four years" — show how little some persons know 

 of the character and spirit of the community in which they live. 

 We would have felt it as a stigma upon this county if, with the fos- 

 tering aid extended to it by the State, it could not sustain an agricul- 

 tural society, provided such society was managed with ordinary care 

 and discretion. But that a society with the limited amount of means 

 that ours must possess, would be able year after year to get up fairs, 

 and have these uniformly so well conducted and so attractive as to 

 bring out the throngs of citizens which we have seen together on 

 these occasions, is a degree of success far transcending our most 

 sanguine anticipations. And still less did we anticipate such brilliant 

 results as have already crowned the operations of this society. 

 Though at the date of its early settlement, this district of country 

 was almost regarded as the Eden of the world, yet the system of 

 husbandry then pursued — continually taking from the earth, all that 

 it would produce, without returning any thing to it to compensate for 

 this exhaustion — had so far impoverished our soil, that latterly it had 

 come to be popularly believed that it was no longer capable of yield- 

 ing more than a scanty return for the most incessant labor. Its ste- 

 rility was fast becoming proverbial. A Wisconsin correspondent of 

 one of the New-York papers, a few months ago, congratulated him- 

 self that he was " no longer doomed to toil over the worn out hills 

 of old Washington." But already have the proceedings of this so- 

 ciety brought prominently before our community the utter fallacy of 



