8 MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



tion of tliem difficult, if not impracticable. The increasing 

 popularity of this exhibition, the augmented number of candi- 

 dates for the gratuities which the society awards for these speci- 

 mens of fire-side industry, and the undoubted usefulness and 

 propriety of its encouragement, require more extensive accom- 

 modation. 



The address was delivered by the Hon. John C. Gray, of 

 Boston. 



On Farms, &c. 



In the performance of the duty assigned them, the committee 

 travelled over two hundred miles of road, a part of which was 

 more rugged and hard-featured than they would have believed 

 to exist in the county of Middlesex, had not experience afforded 

 mideniable evidence of the fact. In two or three instances, 

 they began to fear that the applicants for premiums had se- 

 lected localities for their farms and orchards, for the especial 

 purpose of making an experiment upon the patience and perse- 

 verance of the committee ; but we are happy to state that our 

 fidelity to the trust committed to us was not shaken by the 

 discouraging aspect of the roads in certain places, and that the 

 physical obstructions, such as rocks, stumps and ditches, van- 

 ished before unconquerable resolution, thus illustrating, in one 

 sense, the truth of prophecy, that, in the honest and fearless 

 discharge of duty, the crooked shall become straight and the 

 rough places be made plain. 



The position occupied by the farmers of the county, in the 

 social organization, is truly honorable. So far as we could 

 judge from the familiar intercourse into which we were brought 

 by the nature of the service we were deputed to perform, there 

 is no class of the people more respected and respectable ; none 

 more happily exempted from pecuniary embarrassments ; none 

 more fortunate in the possession of that personal independence, 

 which grows out of severe training in moral principles and 

 good habits ; none more contented and happy. They seem to 



