REPORT.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

The Board of Agriculture met at the Capitol in Augusta, January 16, 1861. Permanent organization was effected by the unanimous election of the following officers:

SAMUEL F. PERLEY, President.

SAMUEL WASSON, Vice President.

S. L. GOODALE, Secretary.

Messrs. Wasson, Chamberlain and Goodale were appointed a Business Committee to present subjects for the consideration of the Board.

Mr. Chamberlain presented a report on a subject assigned him at the previous session, as follows:

What specific changes in the management of our agricultural societies would increase their usefulness?

REPORT.

This question is one that presents itself to the managers of all these associations, from that of a town, to that of the National Society, and recurs with each successive year's operations.

Change, merely for the sake of change or novelty, is not without its effects. This is well understood by all who aim to move the masses either for good or for evil. There is now a waning interest in agricultural exhibitions. The changes that have been rung, "to draw the crowd," have ceased to be potent. The people tire,. and tell us by their absence, that "the thing does not pay."

The last exhibition of the United States Agricultural Society, from the small number of visitors, is reported as a failure. The reason assigned is, that local exhibitions-County and Statedetracted from it. There was not a concentration of local interest.

Our own State Exhibition, though a reasonable success as a

show, sufficiently full to interest and instruct any inquiring visitor, lacked in patronage. It failed to pay its current expenses.

The reports that have reached us, are almost unanimous in representing a great abatement in interest in sustaining county and state exhibitions. This could not arise from a lack of the usual pecuniary ability of the people to indulge in a holiday that could be turned to so good an account as that of visiting a well ordered, industrial exhibition.

This is a period in our affairs, when we may well nigh despair of seeing future good through organized effort, if our organization, as it now is, is as perfect as it can be made-founded upon the right basis, and fully up to the condition and wants of society.

It becomes us to consider fully and now, the vital question before us.

In committing this subject to one mind for treatment, the Board could not hope to see remedies promptly applied to what may be a complication of diseases, and when the patient had hitherto been treated on the Chinese custom-a multitude of doctors having been retained to keep the patient in health.

A diagnosis of the case will be attempted.

The bounty of the State is extended to agricultural societies, as payment for labor done and performed as per contract. Cash paid for statements, which, in advance, are presumed to be rich in desirable knowledge, adapted to general application-the result of careful experiment, wise forethought, or a systematic application of known truths, principles of natural laws, to produce desirable results.

Under this system we have now operated for a series of years. It is a success? Do the people of the State receive an equivalent for the money thus disbursed through their treasury? Enough has been written in the published agricultural reports, on this point, without enlarging upon it here. Has the nice, discriminating, moral sense of the people, taken alarm at the modern practice of showing the speed and bottom of the noble horse, or the encouragement given to the graceful and healthful exercise of ladies. riding on horseback? The decrease in interest towards our exhibitions, has operated to increase the difficulty that the managers have ever encountered-that of securing the services of competent awarding committees. In this regard I will speak particularly of the State Society, for with that, I have of late been most familiar.

The trustees have, through the aid of members of the Board of Agriculture, the officers of the county societies and other reliable individuals, aimed to secure the best men in every portion of the State. A portion of those invited-perhaps less than one half— accept their assigned positions; and of these, many delay their attendance till the fair has so far progressed that their services have been superseded and the duty performed by others. The necessity of selecting men during the progress of a fair, puts men in position where they serve with reluctance, or it gives men place who are utterly incompetent, or it affords a knave an opportunity by concealing or denying the fact that he is an exhibitor, to do great injustice, bringing dishonor on the society, and lessening the value of the awards themselves, as indications of the real opinion of the society respecting the article exhibited.

I had the pleasure of making short visits to two county exhibitions in October last, and one of these occurred near the closing hour of the show. The regulations at both carefully excluded all indications of ownership from every article on exhibition. On one of these visits, in taking notes of what I saw, I wished to notice some individual exhibitions; but to obtain any knowledge of ownership cost me much time. Is this course the better one? You select for your judges, men and women, for their intelligence and integrity; you instruct them to exclude all persons who shall attempt to interfere in their adjudications. You then virtually say, we distrust you, and cannot expect honest decisions except where ownership is unknown, and consequently favoritism excluded. I acknowledge to having put a higher estimate on "poor human nature," in its better phases, than is indicated by this rule. Without looking deeper for what may be defects in present practice, I think we can find, outside of the working machinery of the societies, sufficient cause to account for all the apparent decline in our exhibitions. Agricultural exhibitions have amazingly multiplied of late.

The area of Maine is not so vast, nor intercommunication so formidable as to preclude any from joining in, and being benefited by a State Show. Yet some of our stock-growers seem not to be satisfied with a fair share in a common cause, but must have two state shows.

No county in the State has a surplus of element after providing for one show and making it what it should be. Yet we see an at

tempt to maintain three or four in a county. Town shows-good institutions in themselves become ruinous to the cause at large, when the farmer or mechanic permits this neighborhood affair to pass for the annual holiday for himself and his family-saving a little in current expenses, and missing all the knowledge to be gleaned from an extensive collection, embracing varied pursuits and a multiplicity of products of industry, and presenting the latest improvements in all.

We will venture to suggest for consideration, that industrial shows, originated and conducted for the benefit of a town, or neighborhood of narrow area, should be considered auxiliary to, and directly promoting the interest of a more comprehensive organization. That if held but once in the season, it should be prior to that of the county or state show; that they should be conducted as market fairs, and as occasions for ascertaining the existence of articles such as should be sent forward to the larger exhibitions, and to make the arrangements for sending them. That where more than one society exists in a county, they be consolidated and located permanently. That the bounty of the State be set apart by each county society, and offered. in prospective premiums on general farm improvements, on the plan of the noble example set us by the county of Cumberland; and for the encouragement of exact experiments in the manufacture and application of manure, and the rearing and fattening of domestic animals. That the state society locate its shows for a series of years either permanently at one point, or alternating at two or three. That the usual number of awarding committees be reduced, and that the several chairman of committees be chosen at the annual meeting of the society, and that they be paid a reasonable compensation for their services.

We will present, briefly, some of the advantages to be derived from a permanent location.

Hitherto the society has incurred heavy annual expenses in putting up and pulling down fixtures; and the arrangements have, in each instance, been incomplete, in that such part of the exhibition as required protection from the weather, has been located in such places as could be obtained in the vicinity of the show ground-in each case within the distance of a few miles-subjecting the officers of the society to much travel and loss of time to superintend its operations; requiring a large number of attendants and police;