PREFACE. 



The distinguishing feature of this Report is the complete general 

 index of the whole Second Series from 1853 to 1877 inclusive. It 

 will add very much to the value of all the Reports. A book with- 

 out an index is very much like a spade without a handle. If a 

 book is worth any thing, it is worth vastly more when it is provided 

 with the means of finding what it contains ; and the same is true 

 of any series of books. The twenty-five Reports contain a vast 

 number of thoroughly first-class scientific and practical papers and 

 discussions, covering a wide range of topics relating to almost 

 every department of farm industry. They constitute something 

 of a farmer's library of themselves ; and the index was regarded 

 as an essential requisite to their completeness. 



I am indebted to Col. Wilder for the admirable steel plate which 

 forms the frontispiece of the Report, and to Capt. John B. Moore 

 for the plate illustrating his new seedling grape, also to Mr. Cook 

 of Foxborough for the striking likeness of his horse "Herald," 

 formerly known as " Graphic." He was sired by Smuggler, dam, 

 Cook's Kitty Clyde. This remarkable colt was bred by W. T. 

 Cook, Esq., of Foxborough, Mass., and was foaled Aug. 12, 1874. 

 When only thi-ee weeks old, he was shown at the New-England 

 Fair held in Rhode Island, where he received the first premium of 

 the societ}' for horse colts over a field of nineteen entries ; his 

 extraordinar}' limbs and muscular development attracting marked 

 attention from breeders and horsemen even at that early age. 



In 1875 he was exhibited at the same fair, held in New Hamp- 

 shire, where the first premium was again awarded him over a field 

 of twenty-two entries, among which were some of the finest year- 

 lings ever shown in New England. In 1876, at the Centennial 

 Horse Exhibition held in Philadelphia, the highest honors in the 

 two-year-old class for trotting stallions were awarded to him. He 

 is a very rapid wallier ; and his action in trotting is clean, free, 

 and level, showing evidence of gi'cat speed. That he will make a 

 successful sire is evident from the fact that he has ah-ead}' shown 

 himself possessed of the power of endowing his get with his own 

 wonderful development of both limbs and muscle. His pedigree 

 is as follows : — 3 



