REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 409 



The second day was britrht and beautiful, and there was a 

 fine display of men, women and children. Tiic dis[)lay of 

 manufactured articles in the hall was quite large ; of fruits, 

 very fine ; of vegetables, not so good as it should have been. I 

 was surprised that in a locality so suitable to the cranberry, and 

 where the crop is so abundant, there were but two samples of 

 this fruit exhibited. I had expected to see a fine display of the 

 diifcrent varieties of it. Butter and cheese looked well. Some 

 of the bread was excellent, and some of it, with some ginger- 

 bread and cake, had a look fearfully suggestive of painful expe- 

 rience to the consumer of them. However, the " bane and the 

 antidote" were, as is often the case, found in close juxtapo- 

 sition ; for next this mass of indigestibility stood a half peck of 

 Epsom Salts — equally suggestive of like painful experience. 



At ten o'clock the society held its annual meeting, in the 

 upper hall of the large building, chose new officers, and trans- 

 acted its regular business. I may be allowed to say, that I 

 do not like the plan of this, and some other societies, of holding 

 the annual meeting during the show ; it takes away, for some 

 hours, the active business men of the society, who are needed, 

 and who wish to be, elsewhere, witnessing or participating in 

 the various departments of the exhibition. It does not give 

 time for the proper and thorough transaction of their 

 business. Men hurry through it, anxious to get away to 

 tiie show, and to join their families and friends. Many, too, 

 have valuable stock to look after, or are on important and 

 perhaps perplexed committees, and cannot attend at all. A 

 full half day is little enough time for any society to discuss 

 and understand its affairs, and finish up the year's work and 

 start anew. I prefer holding the annual meeting in January, 

 not only because it allows more time, but also because it 

 brings the farmers together. Every such meeting of men 

 engaged in a common interest, and bound by the tie of a sim- 

 ilar business, leading them to become better acquainted with 

 each other, promoting talk and discussion on topics pertaining 

 to their common occupation, must be improving to tliem. 



Then, again, the fiscal year of our agricultural societies 

 closes on the 10th of December, at which time we_ render our 

 accounts and reports to the Secretary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, and it seems to me desirable that one set of officers 



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