Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-01-21
WORCESTER CITY AND COUNTY.

| WORCESTER AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
The adjourned meeting of the Trustees of this
Society was holden at the old Court House, in
this city, on Thursday, Jan. 20.
The report of the Committee on the Trot-
ting Park, which was laid on the table, and of
which seven hundred copies were ordered to
be printed at the former meeting, was taken
up, the printed copies being now present.
The report was accepted and ordered to Put on
record.
| 1t was ordered that committee be appoint
ed, to whom the report of the Committee on
the Trotting Park be committed, to consider
and report on some practicable method to re-
lieve the Society from its embarrassment
Hon John Brooks, William A. Wheeler, Will
liam c. Clark, Thomas w. Ward, and Rejoice
Newton, were appointed to constitute the COM
mittee.
The Committee on Premiums reported
completely revised list for the annual exhibit
ton, which wos adopted.
The Trustees recommend that the next an
nual Fair and Cattle Show take place on We'd
nesday and Thursday, Sept. % and 20.
The report of the Committee on the Trotting
Park shows that its original cost in December,
1885, was $4,000, with interest from the LIST of
April after, secured by the bond of the Society,
with mortgage of the land conveyed The
purchase was made on the assurance given to
the Society, that the expense of fencing, grad
ing, and ornamenting the grounds should be
raised by subscription, so that it should be no
tax on the Society. The cost of it has reached
the sum of $5039 81. Yet of this sum,
only $1165 has been raised by subscrip-
ton, leaving the balance of $3873 o. to be
charged to the treasury of the Society, max
ing, with the original $4,000, the sum of SILL
1873 o., as the capital invested in the new pur-
chase The report then gives in detail the re.
ceipts and expenditures on account of the ''new
purchase" In the year 1856 the receipts ex-
ceeded the expenses, including interest, by
1886 GO. In 1857 the receipts fell short $155
55, and in 1858, $126 SO. The total liability of
the Society, over its assets in personal proper
ty, is S11 ,545 y, chiefly embraced in the last
purchase and the outlay upon it. The only
positive recommendations made, in view of the
burdens resting on the Society, are embodied
in the closing portion of the report, which is as
follows:
at is true, that the Society have large
real estate, doubtless in value greatly beyond
the amount of its indebtedness besides per-
sonal property, in cattle pens, furniture, &C.,
appurtenant to the realty, but inseparable from
it in the use to which it is appropriated A
sale of the land, or any part of it, at the present
time, could hardly be thought of; and indeed,
if it could be made, it must be done at an I'M
warrantable sacrifice, and upon an abandon
ment, by the Society, of the objects and inter.
ests to which, now for forty years, it has been
devoted, Here, then, we are brought to
standpoint in the progress of our affairs.
Some change must be effected in their manage
ment We must recur to the experience of
the past, when by providence and foresight
strict accountability, a comparison of ends with
means, independent of debt, yet liberal in ap.
preparation, our measures were attended with
equal satisfaction and success, large pecunia-
ry fund was accumulated and profitably invest
ed, and constantly increasing reputation and
influence were earned by the Association.
The recent practice of offering in premiums
an amount largely in advance of the proffered
bounty of the State, throwing the excess, with
all the ordinary and incidental expenses of the
Show upon the contingent receipts of the oc-
casion, so liable to be affected by the caprices
OF men, or the accident of weather, cannot be
justified. A thoughtful and rigid economy
should limit the expenditures, and henceforth,
the exhibition be made to contribute some
thing to relieve the heavy burden Of existing
responsibility"