XX REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 



seen. The town teams were Avortliy of praise. In the hall there 

 was a f:ar (lisjjlay of apples and other fruits as well as of vegetables. 

 The exhibition of butter and cheese was extremely meagre, and, 

 exceiiting a single large cheese from my friend Hubbard, not worthy 

 of attention. The ladies' department was well filled with articles 

 very creditable to their taste and industry. Some good specimens 

 of wheels, harness, and other manufactured articles were contributed. 

 There was an excellent dinner provided by the society in their 

 own building, where for a reasonable sum all the members, with 

 their wives and daughters, could find a place. After the dinner an 

 address was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Richardson of Worcester. 

 It was replete with good sense and sound suggestions and was well 

 received by the large audience. This society has no reason to be 

 discouraged, for the season was a very unfavorable one. The pas- 

 tures were brown and sere, the brooks and springs were dry, the 

 corn fodder even parched and withered, and vegetation on every 

 hand drooping or destroyed by the long and excessive drought. The 

 fair grounds were so dusty that it was impossible to go from point 

 to point witliuut serious discomfort, and these causes without doubt 

 operated largely to lessen tlie interest in this annual festival. 



Jas. F. C. Hyde. 



WORCESTER SOUTH-EAST. ^ 



The annual cattle show and fair of the Worcester South-East 

 Agricultural Society, held at Milford on the 27tli and 28th days 

 of September, was attended by your delegate, in accordance with 

 his assignment therefor. 



In making his report he may be able to do no more than his 

 predecessors have done before him. As their reports will not 

 absolve him from his duty, and their eyes are not those he looked 

 through, he can do no less than oifer his notes at this time. 



With vivid recollections of the nature of the soil, the character 

 and (piantity of the farm products, the quality of cattle and other 

 stock, the style of larming hi vogue in that section of the State 

 some thirty years previous, and having very little knowledge of it 

 since that time, it can be imagined that a continued residence 

 during that interval of time on the banks of the Connecticut had 

 not tended to exalt the opinions of your delegate in the matter of 

 farming on the granite hills of Milford, Mendon, Upton and the 

 nei'-hboring towns, or of the i)eaty swamps and meadows bordering 

 on the streams and brooks watering those localities. 



