136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Many ladies were present, and greatly enhanced the enjoyments 

 of the occasion. 



The exhibition, then, in all its principal features, I consider 

 a successful one ; indicating progress and profit in the great 

 art. In saying this, however, your delegate does not believe 

 that he is answering the full expectation of the State, as a re- 

 turn for its encouragement and bounty to the several societies. 

 The condition of agriculture, I believe, will afford a pretty fair 

 index of the condition of the people. If agriculture is feebly 

 sustained, we shall find the mechanic arts, manufactures, and 

 commerce, suffering with it ; and even religion, literature, and 

 the fine arts, will take their hue from the condition of agricul- 

 ture, in the State. If prospering, it imparts life and energy to 

 every other calling. This exhibition afforded evidence that 

 the farmer is progressing and prosperous. The churches and 

 school-houses, gave evidence of this ; so did the homesteads, 

 the fences, the fields, barns, stock, implements, and the urbanity 

 and refinement of manner of the people themselves. A great 

 contrast would be noticeable to the traveller through the State, 

 at the present time, and twenty years ago. Comparatively few 

 tenements can be found now, unpainted, and presenting few 

 appearances of comfort, while, at that period, many were 

 everywhere observable, dilapidated, loose, and leaning, with 

 hingeless doors, and windows darkened with cast-off hats and 

 pantaloons. Fences were straggling — cattle shivered by the 

 road-side, or poached the fields during the day, and cringed in 

 their stanchcons at night, over scanty fodderings of meadow 

 hay. With a higher degree of the cultivation of the soil, a 

 higher standard of morals has grown up, and these combined, 

 give a new aspect to the face of the earth, and to society. 

 Our foster-mother, the good old Commonwealth, ought to know 

 that her munificence is appreciated, and is working important 

 and favorable changes in the condition of her children. 



Respectfully submitted by 



Simon Brown. 



