FARM LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 35 



make the fair a success; they ma}' act their part, and do it man- 

 fully; then, in order to make the fair a success, they must have 

 the hearty support and co-operation of the farmers. And as an 

 officer of one of the societies in the State, I appeal to the farmers 

 to wake up to the realizing sense of their duties. And remember 

 that the fair is just what you make it. If you have careless, unin- 

 terested, dishonest men as officers in your society, go to the annual 

 meeting and turn them out — it is your duty. Don't sta}' at home 

 and grumble about the management of the fair: go yourself in 

 person, and if necessary stand up and fight for right, for morals, and 

 for justice — it always wins. Then, don't think that you will have a 

 successful fair unless you go in person, and take along with you 

 something to help make up the exhibit. Go, I say, and see to it ; 

 work, and co-operate with your managers, and your fair will surely 

 be a success. 



FARM LIFE IX NEW ENGLAND. 

 By Dr. Geo. Austin Bowen, Woodstock, Conn. 



[Read at the joint meeting of Board and Poinological Societ.> , at Damaiiscotta, Feb. 14.] 



This very practical subject, broad or narrow as we shall view it, 

 is not of my own selection, l)ut was assigned to me by the manage- 

 ment of this meeting, wich what object I know not, for my individual 

 sentiments toward it were and are unknown to them. In consider- 

 ing whether 1 would uphold or decry it, they perhaps exclaimed 

 with Olivia in Shakespeare's play of Twelfth Night. 



"Fate show thy force ; ourselves we do not owe : 

 What is decreed must be, and be this so!" 



Years ago at the time of my student life, I was a resident of the 

 city. In one of my vacation wanderings in early fall, I found 

 myself in company with a friend pausing at the outskirts of a little 

 village in this State of Maine. The sun was low down in the 

 western sky, giving long and graceful shadows to rocks and trees, 

 and flickerings of yellow light through open boughs and climbing 

 vines. The unpretentious houses of umber tint given by the hand 

 of time ; the barns with the "big doors" standing open ; the streets 

 grassed to the very edge of the roadway, presented a picture of 



