14 



Your committee would recommend to every farmer to raise a piece of sweet corn, 

 use what you need for family use and feed the rest to cows, horses and hogs; in the fall, 

 it makes good feed with a good ear of corn on every stalk, for any kind of stock; no bet- 

 ter feed for milch cows than sweet corn. Your committee would like to have given to 

 every competitor on sowed corn a premium if they could do so; we had thirty- 

 three entries in this class and it was with great difficulty that we could decide to 

 satisfy ourselves who had the best crop; we found different kinds of corn sown, we 

 found the corn cultivated different and we think we found more sowed corn in the 

 county than any of our predecessors have found, the farmers have found out that 

 sowed corn is a good crop to raise, and they do not object to have it sowed early 

 and thin enough so that every stalk of corn will have an ear on it: we hope to see 

 more of this crop raised in the future. Many of the beets we looked at were struck 

 with the blight which hindered their growth, while some were more fortunate and 

 escaped the blight and produced an abundant crop. Cabbages are raised not only 

 for family use but are fed to milch cows; we found some most excellent pieces of 

 cabbage. 



The entries of onions were not as many as we would like to have seen, those 

 that were entered showed a large yield, it shows that onions can be raised to an ad- 

 vantage in this county. Carrots looked nicely and showed good cultivation and 

 were well worthy of the premium. There are not as many Swedish turnips raised 

 as have been some years; what we saw looked well and showed good care. There 

 is considerable attention being paid to the setting of fruit trees to take the place of 

 older trees that are failing to bear fruit only occassionally, by reason of old age. 

 Many of the older trees are dying out. 



Your committee examined thirty two farms entered forpremiums, all of which 

 were worth) of a premium; the farms are differently located and differently man- 

 aged. Nature has done very .much towards the appearance of the different farms, 

 and then we could see great skill shown by the farmer in the management of his 

 farm by improving the appearance of his farm buildings, fences being repaired, 

 taking stone from the mowing lot, draining the wet land, cutting the brush 

 away from the side of the fences and the best of all, the saving of the 

 manure and using it to the best advantage to the farm. Your committee would 

 recommend that the farms that take the first premium shall not compete again 

 until the expiration of eight years in order that more farmers may be en- 

 couraged to compete for premiums. There is considerable interest shown among 

 the farmers for this premium, perhaps there is no other offered by the societ) 

 that stimulates the farmers more or that is doing more good than the one 

 offered for the best managed farm. 



Your committee would suggest that some more definite regulation be made in 

 order to define more particularly what the Society's intention is when they offer pre- 

 mium for reclaimed Land; we find various kinds of reclaimed land entered such as 

 ploughing of old pasture land, manufacturing and enriching it s<> it will produce 

 twice as much as it did before; that is one kind. Another is the taking a piece of 

 land that has had the dirt removed from the surface to the depth of several feet 

 and then by fertilizing that thoroughly so as to he able to raise crops upon it; an- 

 other is the clearing up of swamp land that does not grow anything hut weeds and 

 bushes, nor never has had anything else grow upon it and the farmer cuts the 

 and bums them, digs out the stumps, bogs and bushes and 

 burns them, drains the land through drain tiles, sows timothy, red top and clover 

 izes the surface and fits it for mowing land; such relaimed land is an im- 

 provement and should be encouraged. In contusion your committee will say that 

 they have been made welcome guests by all of the competitor-,, for which they re- 

 ar thanks. » 



Your committee make the following awards: 



Corn, four acres — Charles Spurr, Sheffield, i§>7; C. K. Lamphire, Cheshire, 6; 

 I'. M. Shaylor, Lee, 5; Oren Benedict, 4; Win, H. Nichols, Richmond, 3; Hen- 

 ry Goodrich, Williamstown, 2. 



