FARMS. 159 



FARMS. 



ESSEX. • 



From the Report of the Committee. 



A great variety of agricultural or horticultural productions, 

 from upwards of fifty different farms in the county, were 

 brought to the society's annual exhibition at Ipswich, yet in only 

 one instance was an exhibitor willing to submit the entire man- 

 agement of his farm, with its herds, its flocks, its fields, its 

 orchard and its garden, to the inspection of the committee ap- 

 pointed by the society to examine and to report thereupon. 



The reason for this general unwillingness to compete for the 

 premiums offered for the best managed farms, is (in the opinion 

 of the writer of this report) a general conviction in the minds 

 of our most industrious and thrifty farmers, that they are some- 

 what " behind the times " in their agricultural management, while 

 many of them must also be aware that they would exhibit to 

 critical visitors a lamentable lack of system, order and neatness. 

 So they content themselves with taking to the annual cattle 

 show some of their best animals, fruits or vegetables, leaving 

 behind them at their homes the evidences of their unprogressive 

 or slovenly management, and permitting the " fancy farmers " 

 of the county to carry off the premiums which should reward 

 well managed industry — premiums which they might secure, if 

 they would but temper their praiseworthy toil and their com- 

 mendable thrift with more system and with some attempt at 

 neatness. 



But the " fancy farmers " who are thus permitted to " walk 

 over the course," and to win the high honors offered by the so- 

 ciety to all competitors, do something for the advancement of 

 agriculture beyond demonstrating how commendable it is to 

 have fences clear from weeds, to have buildings neatly kept, and 

 to have " a place for everything, and everything in its place." 

 It has been asserted, that while the working farmers of New 



