350 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



reports, — and to aid in building up the reputation and influence 

 of the society ? A society ought to aim not only to make better 

 farmers, but better men ; and it can do it by encouraging the 

 growth of native talent and relying more upon home products. 



Nothing is more true than that progress is as essential an 

 element in associated action as it is in the natural world. No 

 society, any more than an individual, can remain stationary. 

 If it does not make constant and persistent effort to advance, it 

 will be sure to retrograde. If it does not constantly grow better, 

 it will be quite sure to grow worse. It is therefore its duty to 

 progress, to do more and to be more from year to year, than it 

 ever was before. 



It cannot be denied that our agricultural societies - have, as a 

 whole, been of vast benefit to the material interests of the Com- 

 monwealth. Apart from the merely social and educational influ- 

 ences which they have exerted, they have done much to improve 

 both our stock of domestic animals and our modes of practical 

 farming. If, as some pretend to affirm, the actual number of 

 horned cattle has decreased in some sections of the State, it can- 

 not be denied that the quality of those we have, and their 

 actual money value, have been materially enhanced. This addi- 

 tion has come chiefly from the introduction of improved breeds 

 of cattle, and the extensive use which our farmers have made of 

 them in obtaining grades which have been raised up to take the 

 place of much of our old native stock. 



As an example of this gradual change, a large part of it due 

 directly or indirectly to the encouragement given by the socie- 

 ties and to the opportunity which their exhibitions afford to dis- 

 play improved stock, and gain the credit which is sure to follow 

 such enterprise, it may be stated that twenty years ago, there 

 were but seventy- five pure-bred Jersey cattle in the State. I 

 knew at that time every herd owned among us, and took pains 

 to collect the facts about them. If I recollect aright, there was 

 then but one herd of them west of the Connecticut River, and 

 in the eastern part of the State they were but little known. 

 Now there are single herds containing a greater number than 

 that, and many a town which contains more pure-bred Jerseys 

 than could have been found in the whole of New England at 

 the time of the publication of my first annual Report. In addi- 

 tion to this, the grade or half-bred Jerseys are very common in 



