144 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



class, as poultry among poultry fanciers, it will induce attend- 

 ance. It were well, then, that the officers have accorded to 

 them considerable latitude of discretion to appropriate money, 

 or adopt, from time to time, such a course as to secure the 

 showing, each year, of something really excellent, that without 

 encouragement would not be shown. To have a fair ordinary 

 exhibition of stock, a considerable quantity, with no specimen 

 of marked excellence, is less desirable than to have some variety 

 and few, but in each department some one animal of great 

 merit. Depend on it, this one animal people carry home in 

 their memory, and it goes a great way in answering the ques- 

 tion, " Well, were you paid in going to the fair ? " There are 

 those who praise a fair, as a success, if the pens are full and over- 

 flowing ; such are the city reporters of city papers. The farmer 

 of the higher class derives his satisfaction from tracing upon the 

 wall of his mind the model of excellence, and desires only to 

 place there the image of the best, — the rest are as nothing 

 to him. 



Farming is no longer considered a specialty when closely ex- 

 amined. It is a bunch of specialties; and no one person, unless 

 his mind is an encyclopedia of rural knowledge, can be familiar 

 with and equally interested in all departments of agriculture. 

 One man is a judge of ploughing, one of fruit, one of cattle of 

 some breeds, another of something different. A complete agri- 

 cultural exhibition can only be had by enlisting the cooperation 

 of these various minds. The horseman may care nothing for 

 small fruits or the dairy, nor judges in these things, for horses. 

 It will not be needful to multiply illustrations. To have a com- 

 plete exhibition, to have all, departments equally full and well 

 illustrated at the fair, it will, I think, be necessary to lay the 

 responsibility in each department with those persons who are 

 particularly interested and instructed in the class of things 

 which concern it. We must come to regard the fair in its parts 

 before we look upon it as a whole. Give each part largely to 

 the care of those who understand that part best. The same as 

 the State has found it necessary to have boards of charities, of 

 education, of health, etc., in order that work in these direc- 

 tions may be properly attended to, so does it become desirable 

 to follow this example in the conduct of an agricultural society. 

 To some it may seem like too fine subdivision of duties. Have 



