FARMS. 89 



itors for the liberal premiums offered for farm management." In 

 that year there was one claimant, but it was the last one. The 

 same premiums have continued to be offered, but no claimant ap- 

 pears. If this state of things were confined to Essex county, we 

 should be ready to infer that the fault might not be so much in the 

 system as in the unfortunate administration of it. But this suppo- 

 sition is precluded by the fact, that the history of other societies is 

 nearly the same. Thus of the sixteen agricultural societies in the 

 State in 1854, only five found a single claimant for farm manage- 

 ment. It is true, certain specific improvements on many farms in 

 our county were made, as reported in that year, for which the 

 trustees awarded premiums and gratuities to the amount of three 

 hundred and twenty-six dollars; but while the society still looks with 

 favor upon efforts to reclaim meadows, pasture land, &c., yet the 

 grand idea is to induce every farmer to improve and manage his 

 zvhole farm better from year to year. We have had the sliowy pro- 

 ductions exhibited, and have been gratified ; but has this been a fair 

 exponent of the whole, and especially of tlie part left at home ? A 

 beautiful heifer is taken from the drove and prepared for exhibition, 

 but is she a good representative of the cows left behind ? Our 

 committees are delighted with the forest trees and the orchards upon 

 a given farm, but what was the condition of the farm itself ? 



Now, it is true, the farmer must begin a system of improvements 

 somewhere if he begins at all ; he must take one thing at a time ; 

 but will he stop there long ? Does not one pleasant spot raise the 

 desire for another and another ? If not, there is something wrong. 

 And may it not too often be the case that, particularly with regard 

 to animals, the petted creature carried to the show is the result of 

 accident and not of training ? It was the remark of a judicious 

 farmer not many years since, one who had paid much attention to 

 the improvement of his stock, yet who never exhibited a single 

 animal, that if farmers would drive their whole stock of cattle to the 

 show, then he would drive his ! His idea was, that no improve- 

 ments which failed of reaching all the farmer had, were worthy the 

 name of improvements. And so, whatever may have been done on 

 the meadow, the pasture or the forest, if the great body of the farm 

 is proportionably neglected, the real gain must have been small. 



These remarks are intended to throw additional light upon the sub- 

 12 



