The Portland Gazette

Agriculture.—The anniversaries of societies for the promotion of agriculture are taking place in all parts of our country. These associations have very much increased within a few years, and it is a source of much gratification with those who reflect upon the subject, to observe the alteration which is continually going on in the superior cultivation of the land and in the improvement of agricultural implements. To raise the greatest quantity of nourishing food, whether for cattle or for men, on a given space, with the least labour, is the desired object with the farmer. To effect this object experiments must be made; to encourage experiments, you must excite emulation; and this is done by the honour and the premiums which Agricultural Societies bestow. At the Cattle Show in Rensselaer county N. Y. Mr. Cahoon is to exhibit a machine, which shall thresh a sheaf of wheat in one minute, and the instrument costs but $10. The most extensive exhibition in N. E. is the show at Brighton. Here premiums are awarded for cattle, produce of the soil, and improvements in domestic manufactures, and the committee are two days in the examinations. A very respectable Agricultural society is established in Maine, and we are pleased to observe our first citizens and most practical farmers enrolled among its members. It has not at present funds sufficient to enable it to do as much as its members wish for the promotion of agriculture, but they are publishing able essays, which afford much instruction in the principles of farming. We hope that when the government of our new State shall be organized, it will afford to this society the means of giving pecuniary encouragement to what is essentially the interest of Maine.