BRISTOL SOCIETY. 329 



BRISTOL COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The twenty-sixth annual exhibition of this society was held 

 at Taunton, on Thursday, the 11th day of October last. A se- 

 vere rain storm on the morning of the day of the exhibition, 

 and the afternoon and evening of the previous day, had a ten- 

 dency to lessen in a very great degree the extent and beauty of 

 the show, for which ample and excellent provision had been 

 made. Notwithstanding the severity of the storm in the early 

 part of the day, very large numbers were in attendance from 

 every part of the county. The exhibition was one of quite 

 unusual and extraordinary interest, and attracted more attention 

 than perhaps any former anniversary of the society, since its 

 formation in 1823. 



The annual address before the society, was delivered by the 

 Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, of Dorchester. 



At the dinner table, remarks were made by several gentle- 

 men, both invited guests and members of the society. The 

 President, Hon. Johnson Gardner, made some brief suggestions 

 respecting new modes of agricultural action, with a view of 

 extending the influence of local societies. " We have reason 

 to be proud," said Mr. Gardner, " not only of the good eff'ects 

 of this association as seen and manifested here, but of the re- 

 sults of this society throughout the whole county of Bristol. 

 We see its eff'ects, and the results it has contributed to produce, 

 in every one of the towns and in all of the school districts, in 

 the reclaiming of bog meadows, in the planting of orchards, in 

 the increased production of hay, grass and corn ; in the fact 

 that fifty or sixty bushels are now raised to the acre where 

 were formerly but fifteen or twenty, and which was then con- 

 sidered an extraordinary crop. We see the effects, too, of this 

 and the other societies, in the almost universal attention now 

 given to the subject of agriculture. 



But much remains to be accomplished, — ^much that £is yet 

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