iv APPENDIX. 



MIDDLESEX. 



As your delegate I attended the seventy-third exhibition of the 

 Middlesex Agricultural Society's cattle show and fair, held at Con- 

 cord, on the third and fourth of October last. Having visited them on 

 a similar mission at their sixty-ninth exhibition, it enabled me to judge 

 of the improvements in the past four years. I now found them located 

 near the railroad depot on a fine tract of land of sufficient extent to 

 enable them to erect every convenience for all departments in a perma- 

 nent manner, of which at present they have only the stables for valuable 

 horses, and hay lofts. The hay fed out by the society on the two days 

 amounted to about $100. The cattle were in covered pens, seeming as 

 well contented as they would be at their own homes. It is contem- 

 plated to erect a large shed or sheds with stanchions in which the neat 

 stock can be secured for the better view by committees and visitors. 

 Their half-mile track is as well laid out and graded as any in the State. 

 They have no hall as yet, but after the dinner was partaken of by a 

 large and . intelligent company, their president, Addison Gage, Esq., 

 called the attention of members to a plan of a new hall that they 

 proposed to build, which call Avas responded to with such interest as I 

 never before witnessed. Over $5,000 Avere subscribed by gentlemen 

 who had means, and a desire to continue this old and useful society ; and 

 they were men without the horse-jockey in them. Was not the meet- 

 ing of such men by the farmers a great benefit ? Does it not engender 

 a feeling of pleasure to know that their occupation is one that can be 

 made the most pleasant and independent if they will but strive to invest 

 all their energies and capital in their business, the same that others do 

 in theirs ? And I will say that they had invested, when such teams of 

 oxen and horses as were there, either for trials of strength on the cart 

 or plough, and in both departments there was a feeling to win if a fair 

 opportunity was ofi^ered, and so far as I could judge, they had that 

 opportunity, and performed their parts in such good time and manner 

 that I felt relieved to know that it would not be my duty to decide who 

 should have the first premiums. I would suggest to competitors the 

 advantage of preparing themselves and teams with such ploughs as they 

 intend to compete with before coming out to the trials. AVhen they 

 know that their ploughs are set just to the desired width and depth, and 

 the team all trained to start with an assurance of success, such prepara- 

 tion will greatly conduce towards establishing such order in all the 

 ojierations on the farm. 



In the large tent were exhibited as large a collection of fruits, flowers 

 and vegetables as I ever saw at a county show. 



