Flying Cloud, of Ohio, $-3,000 ; Rip Van Winkle, two
years old, $2,000."
Black Hawk * is now (1855) twenty-one years old, and there is
so great demand for his services, that the price charged for each
mare the present season is one hundred dollars.
The Rutland and Burlington Rail Road, from Burlington to
Bellows Falls, and passing through the whole length of this County,
which was first opened about the first of January, 1850, has ad-
vanced the prosperity of agriculture beyond any other influence.
It has opened a direct and rapid communication with Boston and
New York, which are adequate markets for all the agricultural
productions of the County at high prices. The result has been to
raise the price of all agricultural products. The price of lands in
the vicinity, by the same means, has also been raisedin 1843, passed an act to give encouragement for
forming agricultural associations. This act authorizes the formation
of agricultural societies in each County, which, when organized,
become legal corporations with the usual powers necessary to accom-
plish their design, and the object of them is declared ta be " to en-
courage and promote agriculture, domestic manufactures and tho
mechanic arts." The treasurer of the State is authorized to pay
annually to each society a share of two thousand dollars, appropri-
ated for the whole State, in proportion to the population of the
County, in which it is established, provided that as large a sum
shall have been otherwise raised.
Under this act, a society was formed by a convention held at ]\Iid-
dlebury, on the 22d of January 1844, by the name of "The Addi-
son County Agricultural Society." By