476 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



ror the New England Farmer. 



AGRIGUIiTURAIi SOOIETIBS.--NO. 3. 



MIDDLESEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This time-honored Society, the oldest in the 

 State, held its fifty-eighth anniversary on the Cth 

 of October. The day was one of those fine October 

 days which are the glory of our New England cli- 

 mate, and all the circumstances connected with 

 the occasion were of the most agreeable character. 

 The Report is, in one respect at least, the model 

 report of the volume. It is condensed into the 

 reasonable space of forty pages. The several com- 

 mittees, in making their reports, have not availed 

 themselves of the occasion to give their opinions 

 upon matters and things in general, nor to indulge 

 in philosophical speculations, calculated rather to 

 exhibit their own learning than to set forth facts 

 that will be useful to their brother farmers. Their 

 reports consist of facts belonging to the several 

 subjects referred to them. If we should make any 

 exception to this general remark, it would be in 

 relation to the report upon apples and pears, and 

 the report upon stock, each of which might be re- 

 duced about one-half without material detriment. 



The report upon f;\rms, &c., is of a highly inter- 

 esting character. The practice of propounding a 

 series of questions to the successful competitors 

 for premiums, although attended with a good deal 

 of labor on the part of the Secretary, Simon Brown, 

 Esq., by whom they, as well as the whole report, 

 were arranged, brings out the opinions and expe- 

 rience of enterprising, thinking and successful 

 men, upon a variety of important practical points. 

 We should be glad to see the practice adopted 

 throughout the State. 



We have been much interested in the remarks 

 of the committee upon the farm of Mr. Hildreth, 

 and especially in Mr. Hildreth's own statement. 

 It is a straight- forward, plain statement, showing 

 what the will and industry of a Yankee can ac- 

 complish. His land is now remunerating him 

 richly for his persevering labor, and in a few 

 years more he will be the owner of a beautiful 

 farm, worth at least ten thousand dollars, its 

 produce increasing annually in value, while the 

 labor of cultivating it is growing less and less. 

 If any men in the country have the prospect of an 

 independent old age, and of leaving a good inher- 

 itance to their children, both in material value and 

 in their own noble example, it is such men as L. 

 H. Hildreth. 



The results which Mr. J. D. Brown has accom- 

 plished, show that he has a head to plan and a 

 hand to execute. He is remarkable for his energy 

 and enterprise. He has developed in large meas- 

 ure the faculty o? go-aheaditiveness, and the effects 

 are showing themselves all around him. We fear 

 it may be inferred from the statements that the 

 work done upon the farm has all been paid for 

 from its products ; whereas, those who know the 

 extensive business, other than farming, in which 

 he is engaged, can readily imagine where the 

 means have come from by which so much has 

 been accomplished. We would by no means in- 

 sinuate that it was intended that the above infer- 

 ence should be made. 'But we think that justice 

 to other farmers requires that the intimation 

 should be made. Mr. B. deserves the highest 

 credit for what he has accomplished. !Much of 

 his farm consisted of rocky, bushy pasture and 



boggy swamp. The twelve hundred bushels of 

 corn which he raised last year, and the more than 

 twenty acres of luxuriant oats which he has mowed 

 the present year, show what may be produced 

 upon such land by perseverance. His fine barns, 

 his noble stock of GO cows, his long ranges of 

 walls, his net-work of deep drains, all speak loudly 

 of enterprise and success. 



We have been much interested in the remarks 

 of the venerable Buckingham, and most heartily 

 commend them to every man in Massachusetts 

 who has only a small patch of land. They show 

 what a little land may be made to produce, when 

 the tillage is adapted to the soil. 



We should infer, from the uniform success that 

 attends every attempt to make a fine garden in 

 Cambridge, and indeed everywhere in the vicinity 

 of the metropolis of the State, that gardens are 

 of a social character, and that their productions 

 are more willing to thrive in neighborhoods where 

 good gardens abound, than in those where they 

 are alone in their beauty. We hope no one will 

 be discouraged by this remark from making the 

 attempt to produce a fine garden wherever he may 

 be located, but be led the rather to persuade his 

 neighbors to join him in the same enterprise. 



The show of fruits was very fine, and proved 

 that Middlesex is behind no other county in the 

 State in this branch of culture. 



There were many fine specimens of stock on 

 the ground, both of native and foreign blood. 

 We suppose no towns in the State can exhibit 

 finer milch cows than those towns in Middlesex 

 that raise milk for the market. But we have no 

 space to discuss this subject, and must refer to 

 our remarks on the Report of the Massachusetts 

 Society, in our first number. 



The great feature of the day was the plowing 

 match. Some forty teams were entered for the 

 premiums ; and we know not that we have ever 

 seen a more beautiful spectacle than they pre- 

 sented, each moving in its own orbit, doing its 

 own work independently, steadily, quietly, and 

 apparently unconscious that any other team was 

 in the field. The order was perfect, and the work 

 most perfectly done. The Marshal of the day 

 did himself credit. Indeed, in our view, the 

 Colonel never appeared so well at the head of his 

 regiment as in directing the movements of his 

 brother farmers upon this well contested field. 



The only thing to be regretted during the day 

 was' the want of time to be appropriated to the 

 several departments of the exhibition. We per- 

 ceive that this is to be obviated the coming year 

 by taking two days for the festival. We trust the 

 exhibition, which is soon to take place, will be in 

 every department, worthy of the eJQTorts which the 

 government of the Society have made during the 



fast year to promote its prosperity and usefulness, 

 t is sufficient to say of the address that it was de- 

 Hvered by Hon. L. V. Bell, and was of course char- 

 acterized by sound learning, important thoughts 

 and practical common sense. j. r. 



Concord, Sept. 5th, 1853. 



Something for Farmers. — We saw, yesterday, 

 the model of a machine for cutting corn in the 

 stalk. It is partially upon the principle of Mr. 

 McCormick's reaping machine, and is designed to 

 cut two rows of corn at a time. Between two 

 wheels there is an axle, to each end of which is 



