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stead of $50, which your Committee would recommend be 

 awarded as follows : — 



To Albert B. Ordway, of West Newbury, 17 years old, 

 the first premium of $25. 



To Charles Fish, of Danvers, 17 years old, the second pre- 

 mium of $15. 



To Eben Dodge, of Danvers, 18 years old, the third pre- 

 mium of $10 



To George W. Bray, of Newbury, 16 years old, a gratuity 

 of $8. 



Ordway used Mead's conical plough, No. 5 1-2; Fish and 

 Dodge msed Holbrook's Universal plough ; Bray used Hussey 

 plough, No. 15. 



When so many of our young men are leaving the farms of 

 their fathers to seek their fortune in the cities, in the work- 

 shop, or on the fertile prairies of the West, it is pleasant to 

 see some of them who are willing to drive the oxen, and hold 

 the plough, and cultivate their native soil. It may be suppos- 

 ed the generous premiums given by Gen. Sutton, were not 

 wholly for ploughing, but to encourage boys in the cultivation 

 of the farm ; and therefore a few remarks may not be improper 

 on the occasion. 



The cultivation of the earth was the first business of man. 

 When man first came from the forming hand of his Maker, 

 he was placed in the garden of Eden to dress and keep it. 

 The next information we have, Cain and Abel were farmers. 

 Cain was a tiller of the ground, and Abel was a keeper of 

 sheep. The good old patriarchs were also farmers, or produ- 

 cers of cattle and sheep. Elisha, it is said, on a certain occa- 

 sion was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen. We are not 

 to suppose they were all on one team, but each yoke of oxen 

 had a plough, and they were following each other. As we are 

 informed, there has been but little change in that country un- 

 to the present time. Dr. Thompson, who has resided many 

 years in the land of Palestine, says in his writings entitled 

 " The Land and the Book," that he has seen more than a doz- 

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