68 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
WINDHAM COUNTY (CONN.) CATTLE SHOW. 
We hoped to have been present at this show, 
but not being able to attend, we solicited a re 
port from a friend, which we present below. 
We have a word to say in reference to the agri¬ 
cultural enterprise of Windham county. We 
have visited and lectured in several towns in 
this county, and know of few localities where 
there is so great an interest in agricultural im¬ 
provement, and where there is so much real 
advancement noiselessly going forward. The 
farmers are supplying themselves with an abun¬ 
dance of agricultural reading, and are continu¬ 
ally making experiments to test the value of 
new theories. Last winter they united together 
and procured some fifty or sixty lectures on 
agriculture, and also formed a Farmers’ Insti¬ 
tute, at which a number of their young men, 
from different towns, met together and spent a 
month with a teacher in close study of agricul¬ 
tural chemistry, in order to learn the elements 
of this science sufficient!}' toreadand understand 
works on scientific agriculture. 
We must not fail, however, to mention the 
Farmers’ Clubs which have been formed in 
several towns. At these, farmers meet weekly 
for a part or the whole of the year, and familiarly 
describe their own experience and practice, and 
discuss different modes of farming. We cannot 
here enter into a detail of the great benefits of 
these club meetings to each member. We be¬ 
lieve them one of the most efficient means of 
improvement in the reach of farmers. Agricul¬ 
tural books, and articles from agricultural 
papers are read and discussed at their meetings; 
the cause of success which may have followed 
the practice of any one of their number is 
brought out and explained, and bad practices 
are criticised. We heard more than one member 
of these town clubs of Windham county say 
that he had actually gained scores if not hun¬ 
dreds of dollars’ worth of paying knowledge from 
the weekly meetings. 
Brooklyn, Windham Co.. 
September 30,1853. 
I promised to give you some account of our 
cattle-show, but I was so thoroughly engrossed 
with the arrangements, that I gained no oppor¬ 
tunity to gratify my own eyes by a careful ob¬ 
servation of the material that composed it. It 
rained with unusual vigor through the night 
preceding and most of the forenoon. This 
season with us has been remarkable for heavy 
rains, but this “out-Heroded Herod.” There 
was every reason to suppose the active men of 
the Society would feel the disappointment of a 
failure; but, to the surprise of all, a spirit was 
maifested that water could not allay. The en¬ 
tries of stock were more numerous, and those 
who took note say, the average of quality was 
beyond last year’s show. I noticed many fine 
animals; and the exhibition of working oxen 
was especially good. Horses, sheep, and swine 
were well represented, and the county has no 
reason to be ashamed of the exhibition of 1853. 
The display of fruit and flowers in the Hall was 
very fine. The season has been unpropitious, 
and the ravages of the palmer-worm in June 
worked detriment to the apple crop; but the 
show of apples from Pomfret was excellent. 
Pears did not figure so numerously as in some 
of our city horticultural shows, but many of the 
specimens of the best varieties were worthy of 
the place of honor in any collection. 
The ladies, as usual, did their part; and the 
bread, butter, and cheese gave evidence that 
the exquisite display of skill and taste afforded 
in the numerous works demanding the exercise 
of those qualities, was not made at the expense 
of the more homely avocations. The wives and 
daughters of our farmers certainly have shown 
that they are as much at home in the useful as 
they are in the ornamental arts of life. The 
address, by W. S. King, Esq., was listened to 
by an attentive and appreciative audience. An 
out-of-door address was intended, but the wea¬ 
ther rendered it necessary to occupy the church, 
vhich was kindly granted for the occasion. The 
exercises of the day were closed by the reading 
of the reports of committees, and the award of 
premiums. Much satisfaction was expressed by 
all at the pleasant passage of the day, notwith¬ 
standing its unpropitious beginning; and the 
friends of the Society have more reason to feel 
encouraged than they would have had at a suc¬ 
cessful show on a pleasant, day as there was a 
manifestation of interest under no small diffi¬ 
culty. The attendance at the Hall was more 
numerous than last year. We may look upon 
the Windham County Society as a successful 
enterprise, and shall hope for rapid progress in 
agriculture in the section under its influence. 
I have a word to say on the matter of Agricul¬ 
tural Societies, which may be in season, as this 
is the period when they are in the ascendant. 
They are useful institutions, and will continue 
to do a great amount of good. Their annual ex¬ 
hibitions make a holiday, and an innocent one— 
innocent per se —and bring all classes together, 
for all are interested. They elevate the standard 
of excellence in products, by bringing the best 
of all for the observation of all ; but they fail in 
much good they might accomplish, from the lack 
of any element of perpetuity : they are periodical, 
annual energies, when they might be constant 
ones. 
Let every County Society take measures to 
establish a farmers’ club in every town, pro¬ 
viding subjects for discussion, detailing such 
experiments as it may be desirable to have 
generally tried, receiving reports of these clubs, 
and embodying such portion as may be useful 
in the Transactions of the Society. Every club 
will feel that the Society goes through the year, 
and that there is something more than a ma¬ 
chine to make a cattle show. I offer this for 
the consideration of the friends of improvement 
in agriculture, and would be glad to see some 
plan offered to make the clubs integral portions 
of the County Societies: to make the clubsjirsi 
would be desirable. I have just finished getting 
in six acres of wheat. If wheat can be raised 
profitably in eastern Connecticut, I am deter¬ 
mined to find it out; that spring wheat can, I 
have reason to know. II. A. D. 
- (91 - — 
MY FATHER AND THE GOAT BILLY. 
Less than a hundred miles from Syracuse, 
lives an old farmer, whose given-name is Zury— 
a hard-working, honest old Englishman, owning 
a good farm of over a hundred acres, and two 
faithful boys, who have been brought up to wield 
the “ agricultural implement.” From one of 
these I have my story. 
Old Zury has an old goat on the farm, called 
Billy, who is not one of the most peacefully, 
disposed creatures in the world, and on this ac¬ 
count, the boys take no little delight in putting 
his lordship on his taps, once in a while, by way 
of amusement. For a long time the old man had 
noticed that when Billy came home at night he 
was completely covered with mud and water, 
and old Zury could not imagine how he should 
become so, so he determined, if possible, that 
he would find out the cause of poor Billy’s daily 
misfortune. 
One day he left the boys to pick up the 
rakes, &c., after a hard day’s work at haying— 
and walked around to the ridge where Billy 
generally kept himself; it was about time for 
the goat to go to the house, but there he lay, 
quiet and dry; so old Zury seated himself be¬ 
hind a stump, determined to watch his move¬ 
ments for that night, at any rate. He had not 
been there more than fifteen minutes, when who 
should he see corning along the ridge but the 
two boys; his first impulse was to tell them to 
keep back, but upon second-thought, he said 
nothing. 
“ Take my load, Hank,” said Dick ; “ it’s my 
turn to take the I'ellar to-night.” 
Hank took Dick’s load from his back, and 
Dick, going down the hill a little ways, soon 
showed himself within a few yards of where the 
goat was lying. 
Billy had a'ready caught a glimpse of the 
boys, and was soon on bis feet. Hank laid flat 
on the ground, and Dick, on the edge of the 
ridge, now presented a full front, which did 
not seem exactly to please his goatship, for he 
pointed for him, and down went Dick, to aggra¬ 
vate Bill to a still more desperate lun re ; again 
the signal rose, and Billy jumped; but just as he 
got within a few feet, Dick lowered himself 
about two pegs, and Mr. Goat lowered him 
about fifteen feet into a ditch of marsh-mud and 
water. Hank had caught sight of a small cor¬ 
ner of the old man’s hat above the stump, and 
sloped for the bars, while Dick was not a little 
surprised at the sudden transformation of the 
old stump into a human being, and that too, the 
win man, at fifteen paces, who, by the way, was 
not one of the most forbearing persons in the 
world; and as he looked around on the ground, 
Dick, thinking that a club or stone might possi¬ 
bly be the object of his search, stalled on a 
keen jump for the barn. The old man made up 
his mind that the mystery was solved. That 
night Dick and Hank didn’t come home to 
supper. 
I thought T should not be able to hold myself 
together, as Hank related the surprise of old 
Zury and his son, as they stood face to face. 
“But hold on,” said he, “ I haven’t told you 
the best of it yet. About two weeks from that 
time, one day me and Dick had been working 
all day, and we made up our minds that we 
should find old dad bucked, for he hadn’t been 
in the field at all in the afternoon, and he always 
kept a good barrel of ale in the cellar; but when 
we had started, who should we see but the old 
man edging around the ridge; so Dicic and me 
went over that way. There was old dad, and 
there was the goat. 
We laid flat on the ground, anxious to know 
what the old man was going to do, when what 
was our surprise to see him take the exact posi¬ 
tion Dick had taken a couple of weeks before. 
We said nothing, for we hadn't seen any of 
that kind of sport in a long time. The old 
man presented rather a formidable appearance , 
but Billy, nothing daunted, pointed for the 
mark: the old man lowered, but a little too late, 
for the goat took him “plump.” We heard 
something strike in the mud, and it wasn’t Billy, 
for he stood looking down over the ridge. I 
and Dick pulled for the barn, and in a few 
minutes we saw old dad paddling for the house, 
covered with mire from head to foot. 
That night the old man was dressed up in his 
best clothes. I ventured to ask him if he was 
going over to see the Deacon. 
“ See the Deacon ! no ! Can’t a man put on 
good clothes without going to see the Deacon ?” 
“ Yes,” said Dick, leaking out the door; 
“ can’t a man go and see the goat, without 
tumbling in the mud ?” 
Dick was gone, and old dad looking at me, 
and then very significantly at a heavy' wooden 
bootjack, I stepped out the back door.— New- 
Tork Spirit of the Times. 
-- 
What hakes Corn grow? —“I say, Sambo, 
does ye know what makes de corn grow so fast 
when you put de manure on it ?” “ No, I don’t 
hardly, ’cept it makes de groun’ stronger for de 
corn.” “ Now I jist tell ye. When de corn be¬ 
gins to smell de manure, it don’t like de ’fumery, 
so it hurries out of de ground, and gits up as 
high as possible, so as not to breave de bad 
air.” 
Wheat. —Monroe county, in this State, has 
the honor of producing more wheat than any 
other county in the Union. In 1845 its crop of 
wheat was 1,338,585 bushels; in 1850 it was 
1,431,653. Increase, in five years, 103,068 bush¬ 
els. To produce the wheat crop of this county, 
in 1845, 68,383 acres were harvested, showing 
an average ydeld of a fraction less than twenty 
bushels per acre. The last census does not give 
the number of acres devoted to the several agri¬ 
cultural staples, but it is believed that this ratio 
has been considerably increased since.— Pough¬ 
keepsie Telegraph. 
