28 KNOX COUNTY SOCIETY. 



of beef and working oxen, steers and bulls, but a noticeable lack of 

 dairy cows and heifers. 



The season has been remarkable for its earliness, long continued 

 drouth, extreme heat, and these considered, for its great fruitful- 

 ness. Planting was commenced in April and generally finished 

 in May. The weather in June was favorable to the early growth 

 of crops, but the extreme dryness of the remaining summer and 

 early autumn months, impressed many with the conviction that 

 the harvest would be light; and, indeed, on shallow plowed and 

 poorly worked soils most crops were a failure, but on deep plowed 

 and thoroughly worked soils, the farmer secured ample rewards for 

 his labor. 



Grain is of the best quality, ripe and plump. Potatoes dry, 

 mealy, and free from rot. The hay crop falls much below the 

 average in bulk, but was generally secured in excellent condition 

 and is of the nicest quality. 



The fruit crop is very heavy, especially apples. Such an abun- 

 dance of this ricli fruit, with cider free almost as water, is rarely 

 seen of late years, and is worthy to be remembered with the olden 

 times, when an evening by the fireside, with* its dish of golden 

 apples and generous pitcher of cider was an institution in New 

 England homes. 



Two Farmers' Clubs have been formed within our limits during 

 the year. Their meetings we kept up during the last winter 

 evenings with a good degree of interest, and were productive of 

 good. They have not met during the warm months. But it is 

 hoped now the long winter evenings are at hand they will renew 

 their labors with increased interest and power for good. There is 

 need of greater effort in this direction. We want a better dis- 

 semination of agricultural knowledge and a freer interchange of 

 views and experience among farmers. Farmers live too much 

 within themselves. Too many are content, each with his own 

 way of doing a thing. Some follow along in the same wake 

 ■marked out by their grandfathers, doubting the utility of all "new 

 fangled notions," and others as blindly rush into extremes ; while 

 yet another class with the true spirit of progress are seeking out 

 all that is new and useful in agriculture. To this last class we 

 must look for whatever reform is made, and to Farmers' Clubs 

 we must look for a means of bringing these elements together and 

 infusing the right spirit into the whole. 



