APPENDIX. , xxxix 



In conclusion, I desire to express my thanks to the members of the 

 Barnstable Agricultural Society, and especially ^o their representative 

 president, for the many attentions and kindnesses I received during my 

 brief visit to their annual fair. H. Garfield. 



MARTHA'S VINEYARD. 



The eighth annual show at Martha's Vineyard was held on the 17lh 

 and 18th of October. As a delegate from the Board of Agriculture, 

 I had been careful to ascertain the route and Avay, to be there in 

 time for the first day's exhibition, as I had found that my predecessors, 

 for the last two years, had failed in being there the first day. The 

 officers of the society had made arrangements to take me from Holmes' 

 Hole to West Tisbury, it being seven miles ; but through mistake this 

 failed, and I arrived too late for the first day's show. 



I would here say that my knowledge of the Vineyard was quite 

 limited. There are but three towns and only some four thousand inhab- 

 itants, all told ; but I was led to say that half that number were present 

 on the second day. I found the people very intelligent and social, 

 as far as my intercourse extended, if I may be a judge. There is not 

 as much caste or aristocracy as in many of the more interior sections 

 of the State. 



At the first meeting of this society, 1858, as reported, there came 

 some forty young ladies from Holmes' Hole to the fair in a rough car- 

 riage drawn by oxen. This company came singing merrily and with 

 much glee, and were received with cheers and good feeling. This calls 

 to my' recollection a circumstance noted in George Kendall's Santa Fe 

 Expedition, published some years ago, in which he speaks of meeting 

 the handsomest young lady that he had ever seen, with the exception of 

 one that he saw at Holmes' Hole. Although they have not as ready 

 and as many ways of communication as some other localities, they will 

 not suffer by comparison in most respects and in a moral point, I 

 should think they excel very many sections of our State. 



The first day's show, as reported by the secretary, was very good in 

 the various departments — say neat stock, sheep, swine and poultry — 

 although not large in number. There were to be seen four thorough- 

 bred Ayrshire cows and three bulls ; also specimens of young stock, 

 pure-bred Ayrshire. I should think that this kind of stock, above all 

 other, is that to propagate on this island. That of sheep, those that best 

 combine mutton and wool. 



They awarded .premiums for the best cultivated apple and pear 

 orchards, and a large number of premiums on the various kinds of fruit 



