68 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



stantial enough to satisfy. No intelligent man or woman or 

 child ever tires of examining the summer's beauties, or the 

 autumn's bounties, — ever ceases to admire the wonderful re- 

 sults of culture, or to love the works of taste and skill. 



Neither the fragrance of the lily and rose, nor the fair pro- 

 portions and skilful arrangement of the ripened corn, nor the 

 ruddy or golden or white colors and strange forms of edible 

 roots, nor the tempting sweetness and aroma of delicious 

 grapes and pears, ever palls or cloys. And the unsolved 

 mystery will interest our children as it does us, how such 

 beauty and purity and perfection can come forth from the 

 unseemly ground. 



The introduction of extraneous means to create temporary 

 excitement, and draw a crowd, is, to say the least, a question- 

 able expedient. If it succeed for the time, it is at the sac- 

 rifice of some vital element, and a re-action is sure to follow. 



The men and women of simple habits and refined tastes 

 and limited knowledge of the world, find the desired rec- 

 reation and amusement in the fair itself, in the endless 

 variety of vegetables, and the tastefully arranged fruits and 

 flowers, and the handiwork of art, and the meeting with old 

 friends. They want the kind of recreation which rests the 

 tired body, and the excitement which is a healthful mental 

 tonic. The folly of climbing a greased pole, or the ridiculous- 

 ness of a sack-race, or the perils of a l)alloon ascension, or the 

 artistic slauofhterino; and dressing of the fiit ox, or the im- 

 mersion of a dosr in confined gas to see it die and revive again 

 — do not satisfy the spectator, leave no pleasant impressions, 

 add nothing to the store of valuable knowledge, lighten no 

 burdens, and cast no sunshine on to-morrow's toil. He laughs 

 or cries, as the case may be, for the moment ; and the next 

 moment is ashamed of himself for ^delding to the transient 

 emotion. 



The attempt has been made by many of our agricultural 

 societies to make the trotting track a leading feature of the 

 annual fair. But it is believed that in most instances it has 

 proved a failure. As a novelty, it drew the crowd ; but when 

 the novelty of the thing was past, it kept away as many as it 

 attracted. And it keeps away those who ought to be there ; 

 whose cooperation gives strength and stability. 



