SECRETARY'S REPORT 203 



somehow, and the premium offered was equivalent to more than a 

 dollar a day for the extra time required to make a careful experiment 

 bj weight and measure, and to write out a detailed statement. 



This suggests another point, in relation to which there is abundant 

 room for improvement, viz. : the preparation of statements. The 

 law granting the bounty of the State to agricultural societies very 

 properly requires that applications for premiums be accompanied 

 with suitable statements, and it forbids the payment of any premium 

 where this requisition is not complied with. The object of the 

 statement is twofold : first, to aid in guiding the awarding committee 

 to a correct conclusion, and next, but by no means least, to convey 

 such information as may be of service to the whole farming commu- 

 nity, and enable any one, so far as instruction may do it, to obtain 

 similar success. It has been well said, that if agricultural societies 

 content themselves with offering prizes for the finest animals and the 

 heaviest crops, without teaching the way to pi'oduce fine animals and 

 heavy crops, they will be acting like a person who shows another a 

 fine bunch of fruit on the top of a wall, without offering a ladder 

 with which he may reach it. It could only be gazed at and wished 

 for. Now, let every farmer, when called upon to make his state- 

 ment in writing, instead of looking upon it as an arbitrary and 

 vexatious requirement of law, and something to be shirked out of 

 in the easiest way possible, remember that he is enjoying an oppor- 

 tunity to benefit others, and that his statement, if carefully and 

 faithfully made, will constitute a round in this same much needed 

 ladder. The State has also provided that all these be gathered 

 together, and, with the reports of committees and other papers, be 

 forwarded to the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, by him 

 examined, and an abstract prepared and published for circulation 

 among the farmers. If it be demanded that there be something of 

 value in the volume thus prepared by the Secretary, it must needs 

 be first in the materials from which it is to be made. A full tale 

 of brick cannot justly be exacted if the needful straw be withheld. 



Reports of adjudging committees at our annual exhibitions also 

 furnish a most admirable opportunity to impart information and 

 instruction. As there is no occasion for a detailed statement of the 

 process by which a pin-cushion, or other fancy article which may 

 grace our tables on the day of exhibition, was manufactured, so 



