MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 9 



an increasing desire, for improvement in this important part of farm 

 industry. The second Hall was devoted to specimens of the Fine Arts. 

 3'his was well filled, and the display was highly creditable, not only 

 to the several artists who brought forward their productions, but 

 also to the citizens of Bangor, and others in the vicinity, who 

 responded to the invitation, and brought out choice specimens to add 

 beauty and interest to the gallery. It was crowded with a throng 

 of admiring visitors, who seemed highly gratified with the exhibition 

 of such life-like portraits and beautiful pieces of natural scenery ; — 

 Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, and Photographs, were exhibited in 

 numbers, presenting at a view not only the excellence to which this 

 wonderful art has been brought, but also the recent improvements 

 in Photography, which are really astonishing. 



Passing to the upper Hall we come into the Horticultuval and 

 Pomological department. Fears had been entertained previous to 

 the day of the show, that in consequence of the cold and backward 

 season there would be a failure here. But every one was, in this, 

 happily disappointed. The show of apples was equal to any previous 

 year. Indeed, it was in some respects superior ; that of plums and 

 pears was rather minus. Nor were there so many grapes of out-door 

 culture presented as usual, but the display of grapes from the grape 

 houses in the city, was very much superior to anything before exhi- 

 bited. The Bangoreans have more graperies than can be found in 

 any other city or town in Maine, and they manage them with 

 decided skill and profit. A few of them are prepared to use heat, 

 but the most are cold graperies. Although rather late in the sea- 

 son, the flower department was extensively filled with rich and 

 strong specimens of floriculture. 



The vegetable department was in rich abundance, as the stores of 

 squashes, pumpkins, beets, cabbages, cauliflowers, tomatoes, and 

 other productions of the garden, spread out on either hand, amply 

 testified. The specimens of corn, wheat, and other grains, were of 

 excellent quality. This part of the show, though not so gay in 

 appearance, attracted the attention of the more considerate an(J 

 thoughtful, who examined the specimens with an eye to substantial 

 and practical results. They reveal the power of our soil to produce 

 a supply for the great demands of life, bread and meat for man. 



Passing through and down from this Hall, we descend into the 

 2 



