EXPLANATORY. 



For various reasons which we will not attempt to explain, no 

 transactions were published for the years 1879, 1880 and 1881. 

 During the winters of 1878-9 and 1879-80 no winter meetings were 

 held. The Society's funds would not admit of publishing the tran- 

 sactions for these years. The Secretary, George B. Sawyer, Esq., 

 prepared the cop}^ for these years, and it was the intention of the 

 officers, as we are informed, to have a single volume printed without 

 expense to the Society. Unforeseen difficulties arose and much to 

 the regret of all the work was never completed. Since that time it 

 has been the hope of the officers that the resources of the Society 

 would admit of its early publication, but as yet the current expenses 

 of the Society call for a41 the available funds, and this is likely to 

 be the case for several years to come, (^opies of the trarsactions 

 (unbound) have accumulated since 1881, and the officers were 

 agreed that if possible some of them should be bound up for dis- 

 tribution. 



Under these circumstances the Executive Committee considered it 

 important to have the missing years included in some form in this 

 year's transactions, and it was voted to instruct the Secretary to 

 publish onh' so much of the transactions referred to as shall show 

 the organization of the Society and its financial condition during 

 these years — (1879, 1880 and 1881.) For this purpose and with 

 this explanation the following pages have been prepared for the 

 records by the present Secretary. The manuscript, as prepared by 

 Mr. Sawyer, is among the papers of the Society and will be avail- 

 able for future publication. 



The annual exhibitions for 1879 and 1880 were held in connection 

 with the annual fairs of the Maine State Agricultural Society ; that 

 of 1879 in City Hall, Portland, and that for 1880, in City Hall, 

 Lewiston. The 1881 exhibition was held in Gardiner. The winter 

 meeting for 1881 was also held in Gardiner. 



D. H. Knowlton, Secretary. 



Farmington, June, 1891. 



