OPENING ADDRESS. 13 



• 



The first mayor was Dr. Elisha Bartlett. The present 

 mayor is John J. Donovan, Esq. 



The Middlesex North Agricultural Society, whose invita- 

 tion you have honored in holding this meeting at Lowell, 

 was incorporated in 1855. By the act of incorporation they 

 were authorized to admit members from the towns of Chelms- 

 ford, Dracut, Billerica, Tyngsborough, Dunstable, Wcstford, 

 Tewksbury, Wilmington, Burlington, North Heading, South 

 Reading and Lowell. The first exhibition was held Septem- 

 ber 19, 1855, at Chelmsford Centre. In 1857 the society 

 purchased of the Boston & Lowell Railroad Company about 

 fifteen acres of land, for $747, and enclosed it with a sub- 

 stantial fence, at a cost of $1,400. A building was soon after 

 erected, and the society have held their exhibitions at their 

 fair grounds since that time. The society is in a flourishing 

 condition, and many of the farmers are greatly interested in 

 its prosperity. During the twenty-eight years of the exist- 

 ence of this society, there has been a great improvement in 

 our agricultural standing. Nearly all the farms and build- 

 ings embraced in the Middlesex North, have been so revolu- 

 tionized that they would scarcely be recognized. The farmers 

 themselves and theirfamilics have been revolutionized. Their 

 appearance, their mode of dress and living, their habits and 

 methods are as much changed as their farms. Our principal 

 products are fruit, vegetables and milk for the market, to- 

 gether with butter, pork, beef and grain; stock-raising was 

 long ago abandoned. 



We miss the cattle and horses of olden times at our ex- 

 hibitions, and especially the long town teams of fat, sleek 

 oxen. I will close this address by a quotation from the well- 

 known historian, Rev. Elias Nason of North Billerica, who 

 speaks of our city in the following beautiful and truthful 

 language : — 



" In point of scenic aspect the city of Lowell is pi'obabh' not 

 surpassed by any inland cit}' in America. The conflgnralion of 

 the land is rendered remarkably picturesque by the meeting of four 

 beautiful streams, the Merrimack, Concord and Beaver rivers, and 

 the River-Meadow Brook (or Hale's Brook) ; and the five eminen- 

 ces which surround and, as so many ramparts, enclose the city. 



