126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



wc trupt hereafter, they will enforce tlicir rights, and never per- 

 mit the u-entlemen to dine alone. We must not omit a practice 

 which we learned incidentally, which we deem of much impor- 

 tance, viz. : a committee, previous to the exhibition, made a tour 

 throuo-h the county, visiting farms, stock, fields, orchards, 

 nurseries, d'c, and in a free and leisure manner, learned the 

 practices of the different farmers, and by comparison freshly 

 collected, Avere able to make a most instructive report, which 

 your committee consider of nearly, if not of quite as much 

 importance as all the rest of the report, of the doings of the 

 county. 



The above is most respectfully submitted by your committee. 



B. V. French.' 



WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



Handling, a few days since, a parcel of refuse newspapers, 

 in which minerals had been packed, a notice of the " First Cattle 

 Show and Exhibition of Domestic Manufactures of the Worces- 

 ter County Agricultural Society," met my eye. This was in 

 the fall of 1819. The society was organized, says the old 

 paper, iu 1818, and at this first exhibition had five hundred and 

 fifty members, and a fund of nearly $3,000. The occasion is 

 described as one of great interest. Sixty pens were found too 

 few for the one hundred and thirt3^-five animals presented, one 

 hundred and twenty of which were competitors for premiums. 



Hon. Judge Lincoln presided at the table, assisted by the 

 Hon. ]\rr. Waldo, acting vice-president. Hon. Levi Lincoln 

 delivered the Address. 



In the cxhilntion, fifteen yoke of oxen were entered, and 

 their strength and training tested by drawing a cart weighing 

 eleven liundrcd two quarters and fourteen pounds gross weight, 

 loaded with 4,920 pounds of stone, up a hill of four degrees, 

 forty minutes elevation, and also by backing it up the same hill. 

 They were further tried by being hitched to a drag loaded with 



