HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 95 



to attract the notice of farmers, or to warrant such an examina- 

 tion as should be given in the award. A hundred, or a hundred 

 and fifty dollars, distributed annually for this purpose, would be 

 most beneficent in its consequences. Should the competition be 

 large, farmers, who strive for such premiums, would feel them- 

 selves amply compensated, even if they failed to obtain them, 

 by the increased value and improvement of their farms induced 

 by the effort. In connection with this is the employment of a 

 supervisor, to go through the Society's limits, to examine and 

 report upon the progress of agricultural improvement, thus 

 bringing into one view the wisdom of the best and most expe- 

 rienced cultivators." 



Ploughing Match. 



There is no part of the proceedings at the Annual Cattle 

 Show and Fair, from which the farmers derive more useful, 

 practical instruction, than from the ploughing match. And yet 

 those who enter this field as competitors, do not seem to derive 

 from it advantages equal with those who strive for premiums 

 for agricultural products. If premiums are awarded for these 

 products, or for articles of manufacture, the owner is able, 

 from that fact, to dispose of the premium article at a price rather 

 in advance of the regular market ; or, if he fail of a premium, 

 the exhibit secures for it a ready sale. But the competitor in 

 ploughing, if successful, gains the premium only, and if un- 

 successful, sustains the entire loss of time and labor expended. 



Making proper allowance for the unfavorable condition of the 

 ground, it is believed that the work was never better performed 

 on any similar occasion. The Committee have no hesitation in 

 saying, that all was well done ; but so trifling is the shade of 

 difference between the Avork of the several sections, that they 

 cannot come to any satisfactory conclusion which is best, much 

 less, to settle the six degrees of difference which the regulations 

 require. In this perplexed condition, the Committee devised an 

 expedient, for their relief, which they hope Avill meet the appro- 

 bation of the Society, and be satisfactory to all competitors. 



