COUNTY AND DISTRICT REPORTS. 283^ 



MAEION COUNTY. 



The Marion County Agricultural and Horticultural Society has continued to- 

 hold monthly meetings with very gratifying and encouraging results. The attend- 

 ance and general interest manifested has very largely inci-eased during the year 

 just closing. During six months of the year these meetings are held in the open 

 air at the residence of different members in the several townships, so that every 

 community may be reached. In November, December, January, February, March 

 and April the meetings are held at the State Agricultural Rooms. The out-door 

 meetings are held on the picnic plan — the forenoon spent in social intercourse and 

 viewing the premises of the host; at noon a luncheon is spread (the united contri- 

 bution of the members) ; afternoon is devoted to the regular business. The Octo- 

 ber meeting is set apart for a mutual exchange of seeds among the members. Cash 

 premiums are awarded on products of agriculture, horticulture, the dairy, farm 

 stock, etc., in their appropriate seasons. 



The programme is made up — 



First. Of Reports of Standing Committees on Farm Buildings, Farm Cropa^ 

 Farm Stock, Farm Machinery, Orchards, Small Fruits, Gardens, Flowers, the 

 Household, Bee Culture, Fish Culture, Entomology, Ornithology, Statistics, etc. 

 These committees are required to report as to the comparative condition ; to sug- 

 gest improvements to be made ; to give information as to items of general interest 

 connected with their respective subjects. 



-Second. Lectures, address, papers, etc. 



The arrangement of this part of the programme is put into the hands of a com- 

 mittee, who, we must say, deserves commendation for the very valuable papers and 

 entertaining lectures read and delivered to the Society. Among those given may 

 be mentioned : Why Boys Leave the Farm, by Rev. O. C. McCulioch ; The Seed 

 and Its Germination, by Prof. Coulter; Bread Making, by Mrs. Dr. Swain ; Birds 

 and their Usefulness to Horticulture, by M. C. Hobbs; Mistakes of Marion County 

 Farmers, by Chas. Howland and I. N. Cotton ; Better Modes of Wheat Culture, by 

 J. W. Apple and Benj. Tyner; Duties of W^omen as Mistresses of the Household,^ 

 by Mrs. J. G. Adams ; What Good may be Done for a Neighborhood, by Miss 

 Richardson; How to Make Home Attractive, by Mrs. M. E. Berger; What to do- 

 With Five Acres, by Dr. Johnson ; How to Best Employ Winter Evenings on the 

 Farm, by Prof. W. A. Bell ; Wheat Rust— Its Nature and Origin, by Miss L. J- 

 Martin; A Course of Reading for Farmers' Families, by Prof. A. C. Shortridge ;^ 

 Glimpses on the Rhine, by Mrs. Bolton. 



Third. Discussion of subjects, and miscellaneous business. 



The Society held a joint meeting with the Hendricks County Society in July,, 

 at the residence of Daniel Cox, near Cartersburg, w^hich was largely attended by 

 the people of that community and a respectable number from this Society. The 

 meeting was entertaining and profitable, and we came away with the feeling that it 

 ■was " good for us to be there." I will clofe with an extract from the annual report 

 of the former Secretary of this Society, being in accord with his remarks : 



