316 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



As we ascended these literal " heights," we found the air 

 balmy and exhilarating beyond comparison. Upon arriving at 

 the entrance of the exhibition grounds we found the officers of 

 the society busily engaged with their appropriate duties, yet, 

 ready to receive and welcome their friends from abroad. 



The exhibition was smaller this year than formerly ; yet in 

 the quality and excellence of the animals exhibited, compared 

 favorably with those of previous years. It is but just to say 

 that this comparatively youthful society stands among the first, 

 if, indeed, it is not without a rival in the production of that 

 important branch of farm husbandry, " neat stock." 



We have said that the exhibition this year was limited in 

 number. This argues no want of interest on the part of mem- 

 bers, but rather was the unavoidable result of the unfavorable 

 haying season ; many farmers in that section having hardly 

 completed their haying, and consequently had not taken the 

 time necessary to gather their stock from the pasture, and make 

 the usual arrangement for the show. 



While this circumstance operated to prevent a full exhibition 

 of cattle, it did not prevent the attendance, in person, of mem- 

 bers and their families, and indeed of the whole people, to a 

 very large extent. The attendance was never larger. On each 

 morning the highways leading to the exhibition grounds were 

 thronged with vehicles, laden with old and young, gathering to 

 the scene of interest, to engage in the friendly greetings of this 

 annual holiday. If no other good were derived from the oper- 

 ations of this society than relaxation from the ordinary 

 pursuits of life, the social re-union of friends, — the mere addi- 

 tion of these to the calendar of the farmer's holidays ; these 

 alone would compensate for all the trouble and expense 

 attendant upon its annual repetition. 



One other feature connected with the exhibitions of the High- 

 land Society, I cannot omit to notice, with pleasure. I refer to 

 the meeting held in the society's hall on the evening of the 

 first day of the exhibition. At an early hour the hall was filled 

 with persons of both sexes, eager to listen to whatever might 

 be said to create interest, or throw light upon that, which, for 

 the time being, is the absorbing topic, agriculture, in some of 

 its important bearings and relations. 



