MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 85 



volume with facts and observations concerning the past and 

 present condition of the county, in relation to its agricultural 

 aspect, and its productive capacity ; and the contrast thus pre- 

 sented, would exhibit a result highly honorable to the intelli- 

 gence and industry of the present generation of farmers. It is 

 hoped that some individual, with taste and leisure for the em- 

 ployment, and possessing competent ability to observe and inves- 

 tigate, may be induced to make a thorough agricultural survey 

 of this large and flourishing county. Such a survey, the com- 

 mittee believe, would demonstrate the capability of Middlesex 

 to sustain in plenty, if not in affluence, more than twice its pres- 

 ent population. Notwithstanding all our recent improvements — 

 the reclamation of bog meadows, the clearing away of stumps 

 and rocks from mowing and pasture lands, and various other 

 operations that have doubled or trebled the value of many farms, 

 there are still hundreds and thousands of acres which produce 

 nothing valuable. If the owners of such unproductive lands 

 were to give one half of them to those who would cultivate and 

 improve them, and give their attention to the improvement of 

 the other half, such owners would be richer than they now are 

 with the whole. One half the expense and labor that are fre- 

 quently expended on a hundred acres, would turn to better ac- 

 count if applied to fifty. The largest farms are not always the 

 most productive, and are seldom the most profitable. 



These remarks may be thought impertinent and superfluous, 

 and the committee forbear to extend them. As they passed 

 from place to place, they could not refrain from stopping occa- 

 sionally to look, unofficially, at the beautiful meadows, the rich 

 fields of corn, the orchards luxuriantly laden with fruit, and the 

 general indications of prosperity and wealth. The season has 

 been uncommonly favorable for all the agricultural productions 

 that render rural life desirable and happy ; and the farmers 

 have generally manifested an ambition to make the beneficent 

 administration of Providence available, and to prove themselves 

 worthy to receive and enjoy its bounty. 



The by-laws of this society require, as a preliminary condition 

 of obtaining a premium, that each applicant for a premium on a 

 farm, shall present to the committee a written statement of the 



