DAIRY STOCK. 309 



of six and four animals respectively, to be exhibited at the 

 annual cattle show of the Worcester County Society, the present 

 year. The competition was made open to farmers from all parts 

 of the State ; and to equalize localities, as far as might be, lib- 

 eral compensation for travel was provided for competitors, in 

 proportion to their distances from the show. Four premiums 

 were proposed in each class, varying in the first class, from 

 $250, the highest, to $100, which was the lowest ; and in the 

 second class, from $150 to $10. It might have been expected 

 that an amount of bounty so nearly corresponding with the 

 value of the animals to be exhibited, and so richly remunerative 

 of any care and labor in giving an account of their qualities, 

 and their management and product for a single season, to say 

 nothing of the incentives and influences of a public spirit, would 

 have secured general attention, and attracted numerous com- 

 petitors in the trial. The committee have to regret that such 

 has not been the case. There are even fewer competitors than 

 the number of premiums offered for distribution ; and of these, 

 with a single exception, all are from the county of Worcester. 

 After the repeated efforts which, in years past, have been ineffec- 

 tually made to obtain, by statement and exhibition, the means of 

 comparison and preference between the dairy stock of different 

 districts of the Commonwealth, and to gather reliable informa- 

 tion of the product of dairies and the mode of their management, 

 there is little to encourage a persistence in this mode of inquiry. 

 But we may be comforted in the assurance, that the progress of 

 improvement, though slow, will be certain to follow individual 

 interest and enterprise, and trust to time, at last, for the fruits 

 of experience and siiccess. 



The committee received from the secretary of the trustees, 

 the written statements filed with him, pursuant to the require- 

 ment, of five persons claiming to be competitors for premiums, 

 in the first class, and of two persons claiming to compete for 

 premiums, in the second class. An analysis of these voluminous 

 papers, and an exhibit of the material facts, in an abstract from 

 the representations which they contain, will show how far the 

 respective competitors have entitled themselves to consideration, 

 and how far, to any useful purpose, they have satisfied public 

 expectations and subserved the interest which they were called 

 upon to advance. 



