36 



by us a most important sonrce of revenue. The onion 

 has been brought to a greater degree of perfection. The 

 cabbage crop has been made very profitable. All mar- 

 ket gardening has been largely developed. Fruits of 

 every description, for which in 1829 no premiums were 

 offered by the Society, have become a most interesting 

 and useful branch of agricultural business ; and the 

 pear, the apple, and the grape have been vastly improv- 

 ed hj the intelligence and skill of our cultivators. The 

 condition of our farm buildings has vastly improved._ 

 Our farm houses are constructed with more economy and 

 taste ; our barns are more convenient ; and a barn-cellar 

 as a receptacle for manure has become the rule instead 

 of the exception. Well ordered estates, which were 

 then rare, are now numerous. In and around our large 

 cities, the prosperous merchants and manufacturers have 

 taken pride in beautifying their grounds according to 

 the best rules of landscape gardening ; and our beauti- 

 ful sea-coast is adorned hj the hand of man, to a degree 

 hardly surpassed in any other region of the old world 

 or the new. 



And while this narrow spot marked out for us as Es- 

 sex County has grown in years, how has she increased 

 in wealth and population, and in all the memories and 

 deeds which make a people great. AVe contemplate her 

 growth with pride, from the day wlien fifty years ago 

 Timothy Pickering called a few enterprising farmers 

 about him to consult upon what was then the great busi- 

 ness of our people, down to this hour, when her teeming 

 and busy population hardly find rest from their inces- 

 sant toil. Within the life-time of this Society Law- 

 rence and Lynn and Xewburyport and Salem have 

 sprung into existence as cities ; Haverhill and Glouces- 



