MR. fay's address. 17 



advantage to a farming community like ours, the members of which 

 have at almost all times something thej wish to sell or to buy, but 

 who have at no one time enough to make it an object to go to the 

 larger markets. To do this, if done at all, this Society should take 

 the initiative. If fixed market days were established, we should 

 soon see the convenience and economy of it, both to purchasers and 

 sellers. Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry, as well as corn, oats, rye, 

 and other vegetable products would thus be collected together in 

 sufficient quantities to bring purchasers for the larger markets, and 

 a farmer would then be able to sell whatever he had to dispose of 

 at full market prices, as well as to make his purchases there, 

 instead of looking over his whole neighborhood and perhaps unsuc- 

 cessfully at last, either to buy what he wants or to find a purchaser 

 for what he has to sell, as he is now forced to do. 



The fixing of the times and places for holding markets should be 

 done after mature deliberation, and solely with a view to the con- 

 venience of the agricultural community. Once determined upon 

 and established, we should do all in our power to give them a good 

 start. The danger would be if they were successful, that every 

 town in the county would insist upon having a market day, and, as 

 we have seen in other enterprises, all the benefit of them lost in 

 consequence. If however, the members of this Society were earnest 

 in the matter, and would agree to uphold those established by it to 

 the exclusion of all others, it would soon settle into a system not 

 likely to be disturbed. 



I had intended to say something upon the subject of planting 

 useful forest trees upon some of our waste lands, and to have urged 

 upon every farmer to plant at least a few about his homestead ; but 

 I have already exceeded the limits to which a discourse of this 

 nature can be profitably extended. For the same reason I must 

 pass over another topic well worthy of being enlarged upon before 

 this Society. I refer to the protection of our birds from wanton 

 destruction, and to encourage their increase as much as possible. 

 The havoc which birds commit on the insect tribe is well known to 

 every observant person, and the increase or diminution of the latter 

 rests upon the protection or destruction of the former. There is 

 not a single member of the feathered tribe, from the largest to the 

 least, that does not labor for the farmer, and that will not well 

 reward him for the protection he affords to him, even if he do 

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