408 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



have too many holidays ; the sons of the Pilgrims will never be 

 ruined by a superabundance of them. We have too much 

 of the old Puritan abhorrence of saints and feast days, ever 

 to suffer them to encroach on our working days. We have 

 five holidays made by statute ; and our legislature, whatever 

 else it may have done worthy of notice, made itself memorable 

 by putting upon record that " Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, 

 Christmas, Washington's Birthday, and Fast Day," are no 

 longer days of business, but of pleasure, on which the people 

 are not obliged to labor, but may enjoy themselves. But 

 " Cattle Show Day " is the farmer's truly voluntary holiday. 

 On tha^day he should, and I am happy to say he does, usually 

 stop work, and with his wife and children enjoy a day of relax- 

 ation from toil, and of social intercourse with his neighbors and 

 friends*. On this occasion, however, owing to various unfavor- 

 able circumstances, the officers wisely determined to omit, for 

 this year, the military parade, the band, and the public dinner, 

 and to depend upon the attractiveness of a purely agricultural 

 exhibition ; and the result has been a most successful show, cred- 

 itable alike to the officers who made that decision, and to the 

 people of the county, who, in full numbers, showed their appre- 

 ciation of the occasion, and an unabated interest in the anni- 

 versary. It was very gratifying to witness so much enthusiasm 

 on the subject in this county, naturally unfertile, and unfavor- 

 able to a high development of agricultural operations, when 

 compared witli more western counties. 



Tuesday, the first day of the exhibition, was gloomy and 

 disagreeable, darkened with clouds and made uncomfortable by 

 the wind. The people, however, came in good numbers, and 

 the display of stock was very creditable. Some excellent cows 

 and heifers, fair steers, and good colts, were shown. I was sorry 

 not to see more sheep in the pens. Barnstable County, with 

 45,736 acres of unimproved land, ought to keep more than 

 1,460 sheep ; not one-quarter part of what she had twenty years 

 ago. Of the poultry, the ducks and geese were uncommonly 

 good. In the afternoon was a plougliing-match, on a pretty 

 unpromising piece of land. One notable bit of work was done 

 by a beautiful pair of Devon steers with a " cylinder plough," 

 made by Smith &. Field, of Greenfield, held by " Good Speed " — 

 a name suggestive of the motto, " Speed the Plough." 



