CUMBERLAND COUNTY SOCIETY. 15X 



Fifteen entries, from eleven different towns, have been made for 

 the Society's premiums on the "greatest general farm improvement." 

 They are from different parts of the county, — from the seaboard at 

 Yarmouth, back to the hills of Otisfield, Harrison, and Bridgton ; 

 thence to the seaboard again at Scarborough ; embracing every vari- 

 ety of soil, from a stiff clay to a coarse gravel. The improvements 

 entered upon by the contestants are very diverse, to wit; in buildings, 

 fences, underdraining, renovating old pastures and fields, clearing 

 and subduing new lands, leveling banks on the sea shore and filling 

 up gullies which the ever busy hand of time had been centuries in 

 carving out, thus rendering accessible and available, lands which 

 before had been nearly worthless ; reclaiming swamp land ; reno- 

 vating and planting new orchards. In short, nearly all branches of 

 farm economy came in for a share in this general reformation. 



The Committee in making their first tour of observation and visit 

 to the farms on which the improvements are to be made, considered 

 themselves peculiarly fortunate in the accession to their number, of 

 the Secretary of the Maine State Board of Agriculture, S. L. Good- 

 ale of Saco, whose practical experience and close observation rendered 

 them material aid. They would also mention with pleasure the 

 cordiality with which they were received, not only by the applicants 

 for premiums, but by all the farmers, gardeners, and nursery men- 

 in their line of travel. 



Beginning in Yarmouth, we visited the farms of Capt. John York 

 and James Hutchins. Capt. York, formerly a shipmaster, has left 

 the sea and chosen the less hazardous and more quiet life of a farmer. 

 Formerly, he was content to plow over the sivclls, however high 

 and rough, noAV he is bent on leveUno-. The rough places on his 

 premises are to be made smooth. Mr. Hutchins has recently pur-- 

 chased his farm, an old one, and heretofore much neglected. The 

 way he makes the old buildings dance, and the ground hemlock and 

 heath bushes wilt, is an earnest that something is about to be done. 



Passing by, we call upon Capt. Young, or rather upon his Cape 

 of Good Hope sheep. The most noticeable part of these sheep are 

 their tails ; and such tails ! two inches thick, five inches wide, and 

 nine inches long. They are as fat as large, and no doubt adequate 

 to the wants of an alderman's dinner ! 



Leaving Yarmouth, we passed to New Gloucester, where by 



