84 WEST OXFORD SOCIETY. 



tbis exhibition maj stimulate other youthful minds to a more careful 

 and extensive study of Natural History — a very important branch of 

 education. 



Having been thus particular in my remarks upon the different 

 departments of the Exhibition, I deem it proper to make a few more 

 general observations before closing this report. Although the Exhi- 

 bition, in some of its features, was not what it should have been, yet 

 taking it as a whole, I see no ground for discouragement. On the 

 contrary, I consider the prospects of the Society very flattering. 

 They have a beautiful location ; their grounds are paid for ; they 

 are not compelled to tax their members — the receipts from admission 

 fee being sufficient to defray their incidental expenses; they live in 

 a beautiful and fertile tract of country, adapted to the growing of a 

 great variety of agricultural products, and many intelligent and 

 enterprising men are actively engaged in promoting the interests of 

 the Society. 1 have no doubt that these efforts will be crowned with 

 success, and that West Oxford will contribute its full share to the 

 agricultural wealth and prosperity of the State. 



An effort is being made to induce the Society to offer a part of its 

 premiums in the form of agricultural books. This is a step in the 

 right direction ; for an agricultural book, well studied, is like seed 

 sown in good ground — it will hr in ^ forth fruity even to an hundred 

 fold. Agricultural education is the great want of American farm- 

 ers, and every enterprise that tends to relieve this Avant should be 

 encouraged by every lover of progress. And I would here suggest 

 that if our agricultural societies would off..'r a premium for the best 

 essay written by a female upon the education of farmers' wives and 

 daughters, also for essays upon some of the leading branches of 

 household economy, they would be far more beneficial to the inter- 

 ests of society than many of the petty premiums now awarded to 

 useless articles of fancy. 



It may not be improper for me to state that there are excellent 

 farming towns in New Hampshire, adjacent to West Oxford, that 

 are some twenty-five miles distant from the location of the agricul- 

 tural society in their own county, and not accommodated by that 

 society at all, but within an hour's drive of the show grounds at 

 Fryeburg, which are within half a mile of the State line, and where 

 the33 towns could be well accommodated. If the legislatures of the 



