120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



MIDDLESEX NORTH. 



Agreeably to my appointment as delegate from the Massa- 

 chusetts State Board of Agriculture, I attended their annual 

 exhibition at Lowell on the fifteenth day of September. The 

 day was pleasant, but the streets of the city quite dry and 

 dusty. 



The first business of the day was the ploughing match, where 

 thirteen teams contended, doing the work generally well. 

 Seven of them were awarded prizes. 



The stock in the pens appeared tolerably well, and some 

 choice specimens, but quite a number of ordinary animals, 

 hardly a fair specimen of what this section of the county might 

 show. 



The number of swine exhibited was quite small, bat of good 

 quality and well selected. Still more attention might be profit- 

 ably bestowed on this animal by our farmers, and stock raised 

 to take the place in our markets now occupied by the sickly, 

 still-fed, alligator breeds. 



A few hogs of the right kind may be raised by every farmer, 

 yielding as much profit as any other stock on the farm, as well 

 enriching the land, as disposing of noxious weeds working over 

 maniire, &c., &c. 



Would it not be well for some of our laboring classes, who 

 keep one or two useless curs annoying the traveller, and a nui- 

 sance to the town, to figure up the relative cost of keeping a 

 dog and hog, and see which is worth and which produces most, 

 at the end of the year. Tliis, if correctly done, would in many 

 cases, I think, place the pigsty in place of the dog-kennel. 



The number of horses exhibited was quite large. Many val- 

 uable animals were on the ground, the two following days 

 being set apart to display them ; unfortunately the weather, 

 part of the time, was stormy, still a large sum of money was 

 received. 



Few specimens of butter were exhibited, and but one cheese ; 

 more attention should be bestowed on the dairy, by our farmers' 

 wives and daughters. 



Nearly fifty loaves of bread were on the tables, very much to 



