80 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



exhibitions, for many years, presented no important 

 new features, but the festival annually increased in 

 popularity, and this notwithstanding the attraction of 

 county society shows, which had been organized. The 

 show of 1821, for example, had more than 100 neat 

 cattle, and more than 300 animals in all, and this, as 

 the official report says, "notwithstanding that three 

 very respectable county societies had sprung up full 

 grown in our immediate vicinity." The newspaper 

 report of this show says that Agricultural Hall ought 

 to have been twice as large to accommodate all that 

 wished to see excellent things therein. Of the series 

 of shows a few peculiarities are mentionable. That of 

 1818 had, for one of its exhibitors, the indefatigable 

 Charles Vaughan, of Hallowell, one of the charter 

 members and original trustees of the society. He 

 exhibited a superior boar and took the first premium. 

 In 1819 a fat ox from Waltham was in the show, 

 weighing 2798 pounds. At that time the newspaper 

 reporting, excepting what related to market prices and 

 shipping, was usually done by the editor, who was not 

 to be drawn out of his sanctum unless something 

 specially important was going on. The editor of the 

 Boston Sentinel evidently speaks as an eye-witness of 

 the show of 1819, and, after mentioning the great 

 crowds and whence they came, says, "Many came by 

 the way of the Mill-dam corporation's bridge, and had 

 a short but pleasant walk and opportunity to witness 

 the progress made in an enterprise so vast, and which 

 promises to be of much public utility." The enter- 

 prise alluded to, as will generally be apprehended, was 

 not that of the Agricultural society, but of the Mill- 

 dam corporation. In 1821 a fat ox from Hatfield was 

 exhibited, weighing 2573 pounds. The official report 

 remarks upon the great improvement manifest in 



