REPORTS. 



I. ON FARMS. 



The Committee of the Essex Agricultural Society, on 

 Farms, in submitting their report, are compelled to repeat the 

 expression of regret made in former years, that so few of the 

 farmers of Essex are willing to become competitors for the 

 liberal premiums offered by the Society for the " good manage- 

 ment of farms." Is this backwardness to submit their farms to 

 the inspection of the Society, owing to a mistaken apprehension 

 that the Committee will expect to witness some brilliant discove- 

 ries or very striking improvements in farming ? Of these, the 

 present state of agriculture in this county, is hardly susceptible. 

 The premiums of the Society are chiefly designed to encourage 

 that judicious and systematic use of those means which are in 

 the power of every farmer ; and the exercise of that skill in 

 husbandry, which will necessarily result in the improved appear- 

 ance and increased productiveness of a farm. And the number 

 of farmers in Essex is not small, who miglit very safely chal- 

 lenge the Committee of any Agricultural Society, to make a 

 personal examination of their management of their farms. 

 Only two Farms were entered for Premiums : those of 

 Joseph Kittredge, of Andover, and 

 Thomas Chase, of West INewbury. 

 Your Committee visited the farms of these gentlemen in July, 

 and again in September, and were gratified in witnessing their 

 judicious and successful husbandry. Their respective state- 

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