AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS AND INDUSTRIAL FAIRS, 19 



we shall then be cognizant of what is transpiring here will cause 

 us to rejoice that we were permitted to bear some humble part in 

 providing the means by which such results shall have been 

 accomplished. 



The President. The subject of the lecture is before you. There 

 is a little time remaining before the hour of adjournment, and it is 

 hoped that gentlemen present wilf take up the subject and con- 

 tinue the discussion. 



Mr. Norton of Avon. After the interesting address to which 

 we have lietaaed from the member from Kennebec, it would seem 

 to be hardly necessary that any further argument should be pre- 

 sented in favor of agricultural societies ; but when we so often 

 hear it said that they are of no benefit, and that the small amount 

 paid by the State is wasted, I think we should try to examine 

 carefully the facts of the case. If we look back a few years, we 

 shall see that we were merely plodding on in the tracks of our 

 fathers ; that our corn did not average more than twenty or thirty 

 bushels to the acre ; that our grass crops were not over three- 

 quarters of a ton to the acre ; and that our cattle were mostly 

 unimproved breeds. I remember the time when, if oxen girthed 

 six feet and a half, they were thought to be good, no matter how 

 much like a case-knife they might be. Nearly all the work on the 

 road and on the farm was then done by oxen. Few farmers owned 

 horses and carriages, the ploughs were of the old-fashioned style, 

 and most of the other farm implements were of the same descrip- • 

 lion. These things are nOw entirely different. We have fine 

 breeds of cattle, and most of our farmers are raising seven feet 

 oxen and upwards, and also are stocking their farms with horses. 

 The horse has almost entirely taken the place of the ox on the 

 road. Our farm implements are very much improved. Sheds and 

 barn cellars for the protection of manure are very much more com- 

 mon. Commercial manures are coming into use, and a much 

 larger amount of manure is made ou the farm by composting. 

 Our hay crop is improved, and all our other crops" are also im- 

 proved. We are getting more to the acre than we did twenty or 

 thirty years ago. We see also a marked improvement in the farm 

 buildings. They are neatly painted and better furnished than 

 formerly. Farmers' families are better clothed and better edu- 

 cated than they were a quai'ter of a century ago. Agricultural 

 books and newspapers are far more abundant than they were then. 



