ESSEX SOCIETY. 13 



money as one pound of well-preserved butter, we think there 

 are many farms on the sea shore, and on the banks of the Merri- 

 mack, where their milk will be most advantageously used for the 

 making of cheese. We remember to have seen splendid collec- 

 tions of cheese, made in West Newbury and Andover ; and if 

 such are now there, we can only regret that they are not 

 brought forward. Farmers should remember that they owe 

 something to the public as well as to themselves ; and that they 

 have not done their whole duty when they have simply pock- 

 eted the money offered as premiums. The design of these 

 exhibitions is to present a fair specimen of the products of 

 the county ; and every one who has a spark of patriotism in 

 his breast, should be willing to lend a helping hand. I wish 

 those good women who labor and tug day after day, in turning 

 and rubbing their cheeses, would occasionally jog the elbows 

 of their husbands, and urge them to go ahead in the way of 

 their duty. Every man who loves his wife as he ought to do, 

 will be proud to exhibit the products of her industry. If they 

 will not, let the women themselves, do as others we could name 

 have creditably done, exhibit their own cheeses with their own 

 hands. What more interesting part of the exhibition could 

 there be, than to have the products of a dozen dairies, under 

 the superintendence of the ladies themselves, ready to explain 

 how they are made ? --^ 



On looking over the statements, we were struck with the fact, ' 

 that but hoo of the cows were of foreign breeds, (so called,) 

 viz., McNaughton's, of By field, whose produce was the seventh 

 in quantity. These two were Durhams ; there were no Ayr- ' 

 shires, no Devons — unless our natives may claim affinity there- 

 to! Why it is that the farmers of Essex are so slow in intro- 

 ducing these classes of animals, we are unable to determine. 

 Specimens of them have been among us, on the farms of Par- 

 sons, Derby, Poore, and others, for years, and many efforts have 

 been made to make known their superiority ; but still the real 

 hard hands do not take hold of them. On whose judgment, 

 then, shall we rely, the gentlemen farmers^ or the operative far- 

 mers 1 The theory of the one recommends the Durhams and 

 the Ayrshires for the dairy, as being the greatest producers ; the 



