iv REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 



MIDDLESEX. 



Your delegate arrived upon the grounds of the Society to which 

 he had been assigned at an early hour on the first da}' of the exhi- 

 bition, or, perhaps, it would be preferable to say, when the Society 

 was getting matters arranged, and he was surprised to find so much 

 interest manifested that the fair should be a success. With its finely 

 laid-out grounds, and buildings so admii-ably adapted for the various 

 uses, there seemed to be no reason why the exhibition should not 

 compare favorably with that of other societies, and be a source of 

 pleasure and benefit to all its members and visitors. Having the 

 pleasure of a personal acquaintance with the president, Mr. Cum- 

 mings, and Mr. Moore, he had no difficult}' in finding the p]uper 

 persons with whom to communicate. Had it not been so, he would 

 have been at a loss, for here, as at some other fairs he has attended, 

 there was no visible sign as to the oflaeial status of anybody, and 

 whom to talk to, a fault which simple badges could remedy. 



The view in the exhibition-hall was perfectly magnificent. Now, 

 this word is used with a full knowledge of its meaning. We speak of 

 the magnificence of a Roman triumph, or the greatness and splendor 

 of some parade ; but what more beautiful sight can there be than 

 man's victor}' in the agricultural field ? Compare the vegetables, con- 

 tributed b}' President Cummings and others to the Middlesex exhibi-. 

 tion with the spontaneous productions of the field, and then I think 

 an}' one will say the show was magnificent. And your delegate 

 wishes that time and space would allow him to name all those who, 

 by their productions, gave so much pleasure to his eye. It was 

 evident there were no "small potatoes" among the vegetable raisers 

 of Middlesex. 



But man cannot live by vegetables alone. While food for the body 

 is good, there is equal necessity for nutriment for the mind, con- 

 veyed through the eye, and here, too, were we fed ; for throughout the 

 hall, flowers gratified your delegate with their beauties of form and 

 color, and while the more gaudy of the cultivated plants held 

 up their heads under the admiring gaze of lookers-on, the simple 

 flowers that "adorn our roadsides, meadows and woodlands" were 

 not passed by, but held their own with their society neighbors. 

 Your delegate was so enraptured with the "show" in the hall, that 

 his time only allowed him to give a hasty look at the pens filled with 

 admirable stock ; and he left the grounds with the thought that Mid- 

 dlesex was not a whit behind other societies in zeal for success, which, 

 had the elements been propitious, would have rewarded the efibrts of 



its members. 



John A. Hawes. 



