1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



503 



sward. Twenty-one ox-teams engaged in the com- 

 petition, and two teams of horses, one owned by 

 Charles Dresser, of Worcester, and the other by 

 Leonard S. Wheelock, of Grafton. The plow used 

 by Mr. Dresser's team, was Ruggles, Nourse, & 

 Mason's No. 33 improved, a double plow, and the 

 furrow was ten inches in depth. The peculiarity 

 of this double plow is, that the small forward 

 plow removes the upper surflice of the Xurf, and 

 the succeeding one throws upon it the soil which 

 it turns up. It has been proved by experiments 

 with the dynamometer that ten per cent, less 

 power is required by the use of the double plow 

 than by a single one, plowing the same depth. 

 The amount plowed by each team was about one- 

 thirteenth of an acre, and the depth required to 

 be plowed was seven inches. There was one plow 

 onlyof Proutyifc Mears, No. 85, seventeen of Rug- 

 gles, Nourse & Mason, of different numbers, and 

 four of Martin's. 



The time occupied in plowing was from twenty- 

 nine to forty-four minutes. The work was well 

 done, with little noise and whipping on the part 

 of the drivers. The regulations for preserving 

 order under the direction of the Committee, of 

 which Otis Adams, Esq. of Grafton, was Chairman, 

 were excellent and well observed. 



Immediately after the close of the plowing, a 

 test of drawing by working oxen was made. For 

 this purpose, two carts loaded with stones were 

 prepared, weighing with their contents two tons. 

 The contest was conducted by the committee on 

 working oxen, Daniel Lee, Esq., of Barre, Chair- 

 man. About thirty teams were entered as com- 

 petitors. The carts were located at the base of a 

 hill rising at an inclination of about four degrees. 

 The teams were required to draw the load to the 

 top of the hill, a distance of about two hundred 

 feet, and back again to a line at about the middle 

 of the hill, where they were required to stop and 

 try their power in backing the load up the hill. 



There vere nine persons who competed in a 

 drawing match with three year old steers. 



This part of the exhibition attracted much at- 

 tention, and exhibited a degree of good training 

 on the part of the cattle of Worcester county, not 

 to be excelled any where. We could not but 

 notice a marked difference between the cattle of 

 the Durham breed and others in their respective 

 execution of backing the cart up the hill. In this 

 the Durhams were awkward generally, and in no 

 instance that we noticed,, doing the work with the 

 promptness and directnes of the native breeds. 



THE DINNER. 



Tables were prepared for about three hundred 

 and fifty persons under the tent within the enclo- 

 sure. T&ese were placed at one end of the tent, 

 leaving about three-fourths of the space unoccu- 

 pied. There was in nothing, connected with the 

 Fair, such an apparent want of preparation as in 

 the arrangements for dinner. This was owing, 

 doubtless, to the inauspicious state of the weather 

 on the previous day. The company sat down at 

 two o'clock. The Divine blessing was invoked by 

 the Rev, Horace James, of Worcester, chaplain of 

 the day. Among the distinguished gentlemen at 

 the table we noticed Ex-Gov's Lincoln and Bout- 

 well, Dr. Stephen Reed, of Berkshire county, Gen. 

 Thos. Chamberlain, Hon. Stephen Salisbury, Rev. 

 Mr. Paine, of Holden, and Charles L. Flint, Esq., 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. 



THE ADDRESS. 



The lion. Isaac Davis then congratulated the 

 Society on its prosperity in possessing the ground 

 on which the Fair was held, and on the fact that 

 they would by another year possess in addition 

 two large halls, 75 by 55 feet in dimensions. He 

 then introduced Gov. Boutwell as the son of a 

 Worcester county former, and one who, though 

 educated in the people's university, the common 

 school, had managed one of Uncle Sam's large 

 farms successfully for two years. 



Mr. Boutwell commenced by saying that the 

 occasion was thrice blessed ; in the general abun- 

 dance of the harvest, the quiet beauty above them, 

 and the glorious landscape spread around. He 

 craved indulgence in speaking upon an old theme. 

 Agriculture was to be considered in its relations to 

 the individual men engaged in it, and to the 

 country or great community of interests. Success 

 in any department was a magic word. The suc- 

 cess of the farmer was not mere gain ; he can never 

 count his gold by millions though he may acquire 

 a competency. The difference among wealthy 

 men in the amount of success they secure is ideal. 

 Let the farmer have health, a sufficient quantity 

 of land, taste, industry, perseverance, system, 

 science, experience, learning, love and respect for 

 his calling, churches and schools, patriotism, and 

 finally, that happy competency which neither op- 

 presses with fear of want or fear of loss, and he is 

 a successful man. 



He went on to speak at length of the necessity 

 of learning and experience for the fullest success, 

 and said that agriculture, more than any other 

 branch of industry, was dependent on the past. 

 It was an ancient science, and it was reasonable 

 to suppose that something might be gleaned from 

 ancient writers on the subject, whose maxims were 

 the result of their experience. The successful men 

 would be the men of system. This was illustrated 

 by the old maxims, that a rolling stone gathers 

 no moss, and that he who runs seldom rides. Men 

 of system never roll nor run, but pursuing steadily 

 the great idea of their lives they succeed. There 

 is less of system in agriculture than in any other 

 department of labor in New England. 



He spoke with great disapprobation of the dis- 

 position of farmers to acquire very large farms, 

 and of the desire to migrate to the West to gratify 

 that disposition. Gentlemen who are desirous of 

 migration there for such a purpose, should be re- 

 minded that though the West has many attrac- 

 tions it is not altogether a paradise. He who has 

 a home, whether his acres be broad or not, in the 

 presence of New England schools and churches, 

 and under the influence of an advanced and ad- 

 vancing civilization, is among the favored men of 

 the country or the world. Mr. B. dwelt at con- 

 siderable length on the evil of allowing the per- 

 petual donation by will, of large estates for found- 

 ing charitable or other institutious, regarding it 

 as equally pernicious with the laws of primogen- 

 ture in England. 



He entered also quite fully into the necessity of 

 free trade for the prosperity of the former. The 

 address on the whole, we thought too metaphysi- 

 cal for his audience, having less of that practical 

 bearing than was desirable, though evmcing great 

 ability and an earnest conviction of the impor- 

 tance of its subject. 



Dr. Stephen Reed, of Berkshire county, was 



