X APPENDIX. 



could budge it one inch, so that the ill-used oxen could only show what 

 they could not do, instead of showing their activity in moving a reasona- 

 ble load. There were thirty horses on exhibition, shown standing, with 

 no motion ; thirteen bulls ; seven fat cattle ; nine yoke of oxen ; eight 

 yoke of steers ; twenty-one milch cows ; twenty-seven heifers ; eleven 

 sheep and ten swine, besides a fine display of fowls, of which the shang- 

 hais predominated. There was a premium awarded to Frank H. Pea- 

 body, a lad under sixteen years of age, for the best trained pair of steers. 

 "We see that in this show, boys are encouraged to train steers and raise 

 crops, and the girls to make good bread. We wish other societies were 

 doing more to encourage the young, and stimulate them to industrious 

 and improved labors. AVe noticed another improved feature, which we 

 understood originated with the president, Mr. Spaulding, which was that 

 of stanchions, for securing cows and young cattle upon the ground. 

 Posts were securely set, every twelve feet, and two one and one-half 

 inch planks were bolted together, and also bolted to these posts, so that 

 the plank broke joints every six feet, — planks twelve feet long. They 

 were bolted together, with a two inch space left between for the stanch- 

 ions to play in. The cattle were secured four feet apart, giving a good 

 opportunity to examine them, and also to feed without waste. When 

 the show was over, the plank and stanchions were taken down, and 

 housed for next year, and the posts left standing. We think the above 

 the most desirable method we have ever seen for securing cattle at 

 shows. 



Soon after twelve o'clock, dinner was announced, and the holders of 

 dinner tickets, to the number of some three hundred, proceeded to the 

 upper hall, where a good and substantial dinner was served, — not to 

 man alone, for we have an ancient declaration " that it was not good 

 that man should be alone," and there was an help-meet made for him, — 

 and we always like to see that help-meet along with man. That farmers 

 should enjoy the substantial comforts of an agricultural gathering, and 

 leave their wives and daughters behind, is beyond our comprehension, 

 but they were on hand this time, as they always should be, and the busy 

 hum of voices, as they gathered around that festive board, the happy 

 commingling and social, satisfied expression, convinced me that the time- 

 honored annual agricultural festivals of Massachusetts, fostered by the 

 encouraging hand of her treasury, were among some of the leading and 

 desirable traits of that State, whose leading men are the representative 

 men of this age. And, while giving play to their social natures, which, 

 in the daily routine of form and isolated home labors, are so little called 

 in action. President Spaulding opened the the intellectual field by some 

 pleasant and encouraging remarks, and concluded with the following : 

 " The ladies of Middlesex North — may their usefulness increase, and 



