ESSEX SOCIETY. 63 



have been the entries of farms for premium that there has been 

 little for the committee to do in the way of the examination 

 and comparison of farms. 



The remedy for this state of things, it is difficult for the 

 committee to see. They have no belief that increasing the 

 amount of premiums would call out more competitors ; for in 

 other societies, Middlesex, for example, where the amount 

 offered is not so large as with us, there is no lack of entries of 

 farms for premiums. A livelier interest must in some way or 

 other be excited in these premiums, if we would draw out 

 more competition, and derive from them the full benefits con- 

 templated in their offer. Public spirited men, trustees, and 

 other members of the society, who are interested in its pro- 

 gress, should present their farms for premium. Let a dozen 

 or more come forward this very year ; not wait till some fur- 

 ther improvements are effected, nor wait one for another to 

 lead off, but each make it a point of duty that he owes the 

 society, to volunteer in the cause, and there will be a begin- 

 ning of the good times coming for the committee on farms of 

 Essex Agricultural Society. Let this be done for a few years 

 in succession, and the diffidence or the indifference, whichever 

 or whatever it be, that now rests, like an incubus, on our 

 farmers in this matter, would be shaken off, and the example 

 thus set would become contagious. We should then enter on 

 a new era in our history, and be stimulated to devise new 

 modes of offering premiums on farms. 



Here we may say, that if attention was directed, in the 

 examination of farms, to specific points, to be announced 

 beforehand, competitors would be more ready and better pre- 

 pared to enter their farms for examination, and the commit- 

 tees could make a more correct comparison between them. 

 A scale of fourteen points might be framed, something like the 

 following, no competitor to be allowed a premium for a farm 

 under ten points. 



Article. Points. 



1. Farm Buildings and Yards, . .1 



2. Manure and Compost heap, 



3. Stock, for quality and condition, 



4. Tillage crops ; Indian Corn, 



5. " « Potatoes, . 



