22 LINCOLN COUNTY SOCIETY. 



assure me they raised all their own bread, and that too for large 

 families, and have succeeded in doing so for a number of years, 

 and they think every farmer in the State can raise enough to bread 

 his ov7n family at least. Is it any wonder that the State of Maine 

 is growing poorer while such a continued drain upon our resources 

 exists ? One can hardly realize the amount paid for corn and flour 

 without some statistics. For instance, since the opening of navi- 

 gation last spring, there has been brought into the port of Waldo- 

 boro' thirty thousand bushels of corn and four thousand barrels of 

 flour, and it is fair to presume that this is not more than an 

 average brought into most of the shore towns in this State with like 

 population. The interior towns probably do not purchase as 

 largely as we do on the shore, for they have better farms and more 

 productive than those upon the seashore. Taking the crops raised 

 by them as we get them through agricultural reports, it is evident 

 that if proper attention was given to the cultivation of wheat and 

 corn, they might produce a large surplus, for which they would 

 find a ready market with their seashore neighbors, instead of being 

 purchasers themselves, thus retaining this immense amount of 

 wealth in our own State, instead of paying it mostly for transpor- 

 tation from the West. 



The amount of fruit exhibited was large, and some of the col- 

 lections were very fine. Thaddeus Moody of Jefferson, exhibited 

 one hundred varieties of apples, seven of pears, and eight of native 

 grapes. Lyman II. Winslow of Nobleborough, liiiiety-two varie- 

 ties of apples. John Currier of Waldoborough, eighty-four 

 varieties of apples, forty-three of pears, eighteen of native and 

 five of foreign grapes. Jacob Cushman of Waldoborough, forty 

 varieties of apples. George B. Sawyer of Wiscasset, eighteen 

 varieties of grapes and four of pears. Henry Ingalls of Wis- 

 casset, fifteen varieties of grapes. There were manj more con- 

 tributors in the fruit department whom I would like to mention 

 but space forbids. 



There are two Farmers' Clubs in this county that are doing 

 real service — one at Jefferson, the other at Bristol. 



Under tlie auspices of the Bristol Club, they had a town show, 

 which was highly creditable, and would compare favorably with 

 many county shows. The Secretary informed me they had about 

 four hundred entries in all the departments. I noticed some very 

 fine stock on exhibition. The hall was well filled with everything 

 that goes to make up an interesting and successful exhibition. 



