SECRETARY'S REPORT. 125 



ESSEX. 



The Annual Exhibition of the Essex County Agricultural 

 Society took place at Lawrence on the 27th and 28th of Sep- 

 tember, 1854. The weather was excessively hot, the surface 

 of the earth parched and dusty with the long-continued drought, 

 so that neither man nor beast could show his best points, cither 

 mental or physical, as they might have done under circumstances 

 where the elements were more kindly disposed. But there 

 was, notwithstanding, a large concourse of people present. 



The exhibition of stock was held on the Common. There 

 were several animals of the Jersey breed imported and exhib- 

 ited by George H. French, of Andover, which were fine specimens 

 of their kind. The collection of horses, fat cattle, working 

 oxen, steers, heifers, milch cows, bulls, swine and poultrj^. was 

 not so large, nor did it possess those high qualities, that we 

 have been led to look for in a county containing the ability to 

 produce the best, and, at the same time, having so many per- 

 sons earnestly engaged in the cause. If, upon comparison with 

 what has been presented in former years, it is found that there 

 was a deficiency in these prime articles of the exhibition, the 

 cause should be ascertained and represented, so that a proper 

 remedy may be devised. 



The ploughing match was made up of four horse teams, 

 eight single ox teams, and fourteen double ox teams. The 

 ground was light, and could be well ploughed with ordinary 

 skill. Persons competing in the ploughing are usually skilful 

 in every part of the work. On porous and level land good 

 work may be performed, with a well-trained team, with little or 

 no skill at the handles of the plough. It is an interesting in- 

 quiry, whether the object desired is fully gained by the exer- 

 cise of the men and teams on light, level land, where an apt 

 youth of fifteen might be expected to execute the work well. 

 "Would not a more compact, uneven soil, dotted, perhaps, with 

 hassocks, and occasionally charged with stones or roots, call 



