92 



books exposed to the public gaze. Some are kept from pre- 

 senting their farms by the remarks that are usually made about 

 a premium farm. We think there is, to some extent, a wrong 

 impression in the community in regard to farms that receive 

 premiums. We ought not to expect that they all should be 

 perfect. The object of the Society in publishing the detail- 

 ed management of farms, is not to present perfect models* 

 to be implicitly followed in every respect, but to give the 

 public that information which will enable farmers better to 

 manage their own farms. We may sometimes be taught our 

 own failings, by having the errors of others brought to our 

 notice. The farmer who gives a true and full statement of 

 the expense and income of his farm, is doing more to promote 

 the cause of agriculture than he who gives only an estimate oi 

 what his farm produces and withholds the expenses. 



We think that one reason why so little interest is now felt 

 in this county in entering farms for premium, has grown out 

 of the practice of those who have given statements of their 

 farms, in keeping out of view their expenses and showing only 

 their income. Every item of outlay and expense should be 

 brought into the account before we speak of income. We 

 have sometimes thought that, it might be well for the Society 

 to offer a premium for the best account of the expenses of 

 conducting a farm, and say nothing of its income. In this 

 way, perhaps, the public might learn that farming is not all 

 income, as they might naturally infer that it is from the state- 

 ments that are given. 



We have had but one entry for the premium this year — that 

 of S. A. Merrill, the occupant of the Derby Farm, in Sovith 

 Salem. We think this is the first time, in the history of this 

 Society, that a person who has leased a farm has offered it for 

 a premium. 



The Committee visited the farm on the 11 th day of July, at 

 which time the srrass was cut and most of it in the barn. We 

 noticed the fields were very smoothly mown, and raked clean, 

 and the hay appeared to be of good quality. The general ap- 



