REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 115 



ESSEX. 



Having been appointed by the Board to attend the annual 

 exhibition of the Essex Agricultural Society holden on the 29th 

 and 30th of September last, I attended to that duty, and submit 

 the following Report : — 



After having spent a very pleasant night in sharing the hospi- 

 tality of General William Sutton, of South Danvers, and enjoyed 

 a stroll over his grounds and among his buildings and stock, and 

 finding every thing in the very best order, in company with him 

 on the morning of the 30th, I rode over to Danvers where the 

 exhibition was being held. The weather was very pleasant, and 

 we were greeted on our way with abundant evidences of thrift 

 and — onions ; the former a legitimate result of the cultivation 

 of the latter. On arriving in the vicinity of the exhibition, I 

 was much gratified to notice the large crowd of visitors with 

 which the whole neighborhood was thronged. It seemed as 

 though the people had turned out en masse to celebrate the 

 holiday. This is right. These occasions should be considered 

 what they certainly deserve to be, the great festive gatherings 

 of the year. The husbandman, relying upon the promise that 

 seed-time and harvest shall not fail, has deposited his seed in 

 the earth in full confidence, and watched and tended it with 

 perhaps the same faith, but not always without some grumblings 

 and complaints concerning the heat, the cold, the wet, or the 

 drought, at last sees his crops arrive at full fruition, putting to 

 flight his doubts, making him ashamed of any distrust which he 

 may have indulged, and filling his heart with gratitude and 

 thankfulness. Whose breast does not swell with emotion as he 

 looks upon the noble specimens of the varied products of the 

 soil which are displayed at these exhibitions ? Here are to be 

 seen the various elements of the staff of life ; luscious and 

 tempting fruits ; the products of the vegetable garden ; the 

 fragrant flower. The necessaries and the luxuries of life ; the 

 useful and the beautiful. In the department allotted to animals 

 we find the noble horse ; the patient ox ; the useful sheep and 



