AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 137 



fair, I desire the reader to give careful consideration ; accept or 

 reject it. Upon the acceptance of the position here taken will 

 hinge the appositeness of thoughts to follow. Anything which 

 obstructs the service of the society to the community, in this 

 particular, is an injury, and must be rejected, except in so far 

 as need of funds, and perhaps popularity, may make some other 

 line of action a temporary necessity. But such compromise is 

 an injury, always, to the agricultural services of the society. It 

 is a compromise, and as such is evidence of want of tone in the 

 agricultural community. Let the Middlesex South Agricultural 

 Society resolve, — 



1 Whereas, The prime object of an Annual Cattle Show and 

 Fair is for the purpose of bringing under the observation of our 

 farmers, for their study, models or examples of excellence, in 

 the several classes for which premiums are offered, and by which, 

 the best being rendered familiar, all may hope to become better 

 judges than they now are, and labor to have what is decided to 

 be good and desirable become common ; any action which directs 

 attention from this object, as sensational programme, and anti- 

 agricultural, is to be accepted as a temporary expedient, to pro- 

 mote the prosperity of this organization, and not as in the line 

 of its obligations to the community. 



So far as the good service of the society is concerned, it 

 matters not whether the excellent come from within or without 

 the district. If there is a better Shorthorn, or Jersey, or Ayrshire 

 bull out of the district than in it, it is desirable to have the 

 best in the society's enclosure. The best does the most service, 

 since he affords the eye a better model for study than the inferior 

 possibly can. If the premium is forty dollars for the best, and 

 the money is drawn by a person residing outside of the district, 

 the injury to the society, in any view we may regard it, cannot 

 exceed forty dollars. The good cannot be estimated ; and. 

 possibly the outside entry has brought more money to the gate- 

 keeper than the sum of money carried off in premium. The 

 society's services must not be measured by the bounties it strews 

 among the farmers. This money service is incidental to higher 

 service. I am sorry to remark that some few farmers seem to 

 take a different view of this matter. 



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