4 



bition hall, at the ploughing match and among the stock 

 pens, at meetings of trustees and committees, and, im 

 later years, at the Farmers' Institutes. 



Without any boasting, there is no other such county 

 agricultural society in the Commonwealth. In most of 

 the other counties there are several, aside from the town 

 societies. The people do not there as here, all come 

 together at the annual Fair of one. 



Middlesex has three; Worcester, five; and several 

 others, two. We have but one. The original and the 

 present Essex Society covers the whole county, and. in 

 our itinerating habit we go into all parts of it. 



An observation of many years leads me to believe that 

 there is no county in the Commonwealth where the ac- 

 quaintance of the people with each other is so general, — 

 where so many people know so many other people, as in 

 this. While our territorial compactness, and the unusual 

 facilities of transportation and travel between one town 

 and another, may have much to do with this, it is yet, I 

 think, attributable largely, if not chiefly, to this society — 

 to the men who have sustained it, and to the method of 

 conducting its fairs and its other business, bringing to- 

 gether, year after year, large numbers of the best of our 

 people. And when I say no two days in the year are 

 mure enjoyable or anticipated with greater pleasure than 

 these of our annual fair, I am quite sure I express the 

 feeling of many of you, as well as my own. Nowhere 

 are there heartier or more cordial greetings, nowhere can 

 be found a happier or better company of men and women. 



While it may not have been the original purpose of 

 this society, as it is not now its definite or specific aim, to 

 improve the social, moral or intellectual condition of the 

 people, yet such unquestionably has been the result. 



