ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 27 



pened and one machine was put out of the race, but the 

 trial was instructive and helpful. 



A few of the more progressive farmers made practical 

 test of the value of the new invention on their own farms 

 in the same summer. William F. Porter of Bradford 

 cut 116 acres with a mowing machine; Horace Ware, 

 541/^ acres with one of the same make. Dr. Loring cut 

 58 acres with a Ketchum machine, and made successful 

 experiment with his machine drawn by oxen on his salt 

 marsh. As a matter of fact, the committee favored the 

 use of oxen rather than horses with the mower. A 

 hay-tedder of English make, which had been imported by 

 Mr. Fay, was exhibited by Dr. Loring in 1858. 



The time-honored ploughing match, with the competing 

 double yokes of mighty oxen, was still the most exciting 

 event of the Cattle Show, and in 1858 it was held up 

 for two hours, waiting the arrival of their expected guest, 

 George Peabody, the London banker and philanthropist, 

 then revisiting his old home in Essex County. But there 

 were those who called for more modern accessories, which 

 gave popularity to other County Fairs, though once and 

 again their covert demand was silenced by the scornful 

 query of the elder men : "What have military companies, 

 and fire engines, horse races and female equestriennes to 

 do with farming?" 



The Society became heir to the Treadwell farm in Tops- 

 field in 1856, under the will of Dr. John G. Treadwell of 

 Salem. He devised the farm after the decease of his 

 mother, to the Society, "for the promotion of the science 

 of Agriculture by the instituting and performance of 

 experiments and such other means as may tend to the 

 advancement of science," with an eventual reversion to 

 the Massachusetts General Hospital if the Society de- 

 clined to accept the gift on these terms, or failed to ob- 

 serve the conditions of the gift. Two schemes for the 

 use of the property were considered. One was the estab- 

 lishment of a school of practical agriculture, which might 



