MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 471 



The fruits, flowers, and vegetables were exhibited under a 

 vast tent, or rather, under a tent which would have seemed 

 vast, but for the crowd which thronged it. There were vari- 

 ous articles attesting the taste and skill of the fair daughters of 

 Norfolk, but the throng of visitors and lack of time prevented 

 a particular examination. I did not notice many articles of 

 manufacture other than those of a domestic character. The 

 prominent feature of the exhibition was the fruit. The presi- 

 dent, at the dinner table, said, in substance, that in several re- 

 spects, no exhibition of fruits in the world could surpass theirs 

 of that day. That was, I think, no vain boast, but plain prose, 

 duantity, variety, and quality, all considered, I have never seen 

 it equalled. 



At the appointed hour, a procession was formed, to proceed 

 to the church, to hear an address from George R. Russell, of 

 Roxbury. The procession was formed and marshalled with 

 greater order and decorum throughout, than I have ever wit- 

 nessed on a similar occasion. I listened with deep interest 

 and delighted attention to words of wisdom, seasoned with 

 most polished wit, and thought the hour mi'St pleasantly and 

 profitably spent. 



After the address, the procession was re-formed, and the so- 

 ciety and its guests repaired to the appointed portion of the 

 tent, where about one thousand persons, ladies and gentlemen, 

 with merry and thankful hearts, partook of the good things so 

 abundantly provided. At the table, as elsewhere, beaming 

 faces, good cheer, hearty and unceremonious welcome, and 

 thankfulness to the God of the harvest, prevailed. Speeches 

 were made by the venerable President duincy, and other gen- 

 tlemen. 



All orders of men, and women too, seemed to conspire to 

 make the day of exhibition an occasion of real improvement 

 and thanksgiving. The early and accomplished pioneers and 

 fathers of husbandry and of horticulture in the county; young 

 agriculturists and horticulturists, in the first flush of enthusi- 

 asm, pressing forward to fill the places of their seniors ; profes- 

 sional men of every class, as well as out-and-out farmers, and 

 their wives, and all their lads and lasses, seemed to enter ear- 



