170 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTUEE. 



AlthougTi at its first introduction it may have worked some 

 inconvenience to the exhibitors and Iiave been the cause of 

 disappointment, if not of apparent injustice in some cases, and 

 moreover of no small embarrassment to the committee, they 

 nevertheless believe that, in the long run, a strict compliance 

 with it will not fail to be of gi'eat benefit to the stock-raising 

 interest of this community. 



Careful experiments conducted for long periods of time, 

 both in this country and in England, whence most of our im- 

 proved breeds of cattle come, have settled the fact that the 

 only sure, and at the same time, rapid method of improving 

 a given herd of native or mongrel stock, is to breed from 

 thoroughbred males. Especially is this true in the improve- 

 ment of milk-producing animals. With this deduction of ex- 

 perience, the principles of animal physiology as expounded by 

 its most eminent professors, agree. 



Since, then, the true end for which the society exists at all, 

 and for which it receives the bounty of the Commonwealth, is 

 to secure the highest possible excellence in this as in every 

 other department of industry within its scope, it is manifestly 

 both wise and just that its premiums should be awarded only 

 for such methods, processes and jjroducts as shall best secure 

 the desired result. 



The committee believe that considerations like these fully 

 justify the wisdom of the rule adopted by the Board of Agri- 

 culture for the guidance of the societies under its supervision. 

 They believe that a cheerful and honest compliance with it 

 cannot fail to direct the attention of our stock-raisers to the 

 vast importance of a more careful study of the principles and 

 methods of breeding, and so to awaken a deeper and more in- 

 telligent interest in a most important branch of husbandry, — 

 one to which a large portion of our territory is so well adapted. 

 With such an interest aroused, we see no good reason why 

 the agricultural wealth of this region should not be multiplied 

 many-fold within a brief term of years. 



In aj^plying the rule of the society, the committee, desiring 

 to be neither too technical nor too lax in their judgments, 

 agreed that when the evidence as to the pedigree of any ani- 

 mal should be such that they would be willing, without fur- 

 ther inquiry, to purchase it as a thoroughbred, it should be 

 satisfactory. 



