314 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



beiiiij: well sustained, cviiiciiifi' an onward progress, and furnisli- 

 ing abundant proof of the increasing interest in the improve- 

 ment of the soil and the cause of agriculture. 



Samuel II. Bushnell. 



BARNSTABLE. 



The Barnstable County Agricultural Fair was held on Tues- 

 day and Wednesday, the 9th and 10th days of October, governed 

 by the rules and regulations established according to chapter 

 6G of the General Statutes of Massachusetts. 



Success has become a habit with the officers of the Barnstable 

 Society in the discharge of their duties. The exhibition in all 

 the neccssanj crops of the farm and in the abundance of fruits 

 displayed, was a fit summing up of the evidence of the progress 

 which has been made in agriculture and its kindred branches. 

 The number of premiums awarded was 288. For the geograph- 

 ical boundaries and the character of the soil, (as the water 

 lines and the surface soil are somewhat changeable,) the writer 

 begs leave to refer to the latest topographical surveys and to the 

 work of Professor Hitchcock, " Soils of the Cape." On the 

 Cape the sea was a more apparent fact to the eye of yoiir dele- 

 gate than the land. The wind seems to blow from every 

 quarter. Tuesday, 9th, was mainly devoted to the exhibition 

 of neat stock and other stock of the farm, farm implements, 

 farm crops, and household industry. The ploughing match 

 was attended in the afternoon, and the hearing of an address, 

 (subject, " Farming with a Reason,") was attended in the 

 evening. Wednesday was full of promise and realization to 

 the treasury of the society, and of satisfaction to the great 

 numbers who visited the exhibition. Never on the Cape has 

 more sound sense been exhibited in one day, in providing good 

 cheer for the body and instruction for the mind. From sunrise 

 to sunset the exhibition hall was crowded with visitors. The 

 annual address by George S. Hillard, full of reasons " why a 

 farmer should be contented with his lot," made all the farmers 

 who heard him very contented — and much more so those who 

 heard him who were not farmers. The seats in the meeting- 



