146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



or in the cultivation of the same crop, differ so widely that it is 

 often a difficult matter to state the prevailing customs. Farm 

 journals or accounts are not kept, and hence many otherwise intel- 

 ligent men are unable to give a very satisfactory or complete state- 

 ment of their doings. 



The author believes this to be the first treatise where a general 

 view of the agriculture of any county in the State has been given. 

 There are many imperfections in the work, but I hope its publica- 

 tion will give an opportunity to have them pointed out and cor- 

 rected, and lead others to efforts in the same direction, until com- 

 plete surveys of the agricultural resources and capabilities of every 

 county in the State shall be given to the public. Such reports 

 would become the most valuable agricultural treatises of the day. 



In order that such surveys may be written and published, would 

 it not be well for our agricultural societies to offer premiums for 

 the best written and most carefully prepared surveys of entire, or 

 parts of the counties where such societies are located ? 



South Norridgewock, October, 1860. 



I. — Topographical Description of the Countt. 



That portion of the State of Maine comprised within the limits 

 of Somerset county — being that part included in the present survey 

 — is bounded on the north by Aroostook county and Canada East, 

 on the east by Piscataquis and Penobscot counties, on the south by 

 the county of Kennebec, and on the west by Franklin county and 

 Canada East. It lies between latitude 44 deg. 30 min. and 46 deg. 

 30 min. north ; and longitude 69 deg. and 71 deg. west from Green- 

 wich — the extreme length of the county being two hundred 

 miles, and its greatest width forty-two. It is divided into thirty 

 towns and forty-seven townships and plantations, besides contain- 

 ing a million of acres of unsurveyed territory. According to the 

 census of 1850, the population was 35,582. 



The county is well watered. Mooschead lake, which is forty 

 miles long and forms part of the boundary between this and Piscat- 

 aquis county, gives rise to the Kennebec, one of the most import- 

 ant rivers in the State. It runs in a southwesterly course through 

 three ranges of townships, where it forms a junction with Dead 



