PEXOBSCOT & AROOSTOOK UNION SOCIETY. 



This Society held its Show and Fair at Golden Ridge, Aroostook 

 county, on the 8th of October. The Secretary writes that an in- 

 structive address was delivered by Alfred Cushman, Esq., on 

 Practical Farming. No copy of it has been received for publication. 



The influence of the Society has been very marked in awakening 

 interest on agricultural subjects, and improvement is visible in many 

 departments. The President, Mr. Cushman, writes as follows : 



"This Society is improving in strength and importance. It has 

 received a large number of new members the present season ; and 

 exerted a good influence in favor of improvement in agriculture, 

 especially in improving the breed of stock, and the manner of culti- 

 vating Indian corn. Since the formation of this Society, the quan- 

 tity of corn grown upon an acre has increased from fifty or sixty 

 bushels to about one hundred. The Annual Fair (which, for this 

 place, was quite respectable,) showed quite a prevailing error; 

 which is : each one presumes his neighbor's things will exceed his 

 own, and therefore it is better not to compete than be excelled. 

 While our soil is excellent, and when properly dressed will produce 

 the largest crops, there is a disposition to crop without manure, 

 which much exhausts the land. We labor under the disadvantage 

 •of costly transportation of necessaries from Bangor, which can be 

 relieved only by a railroad ; yet, as it is, there probably is no place 

 in the Union where a man with small capital, or none at all, can 

 commence farming and do as well as here. The State owns many 

 thousand acres of land in townships number three, range five ; num- 

 ber four, range four, and others within the limits of this Society, of 

 the best quality — covered with beautiful hard wood — easily cleared — 

 the best for first crops — grass, and plowing, — which it gives the 

 settler, by his making his own road. Any healthy man, who will 

 commence here, and practice a reasonable degree of industry and 



