260 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Your Secretary collects, or would collect, from these printed 

 reports all valuable matter to be placed in bis Annual Report, 

 which is published at the expense of the State and sent out to 

 the world. 



Some societies in our State have adopted the plan of giving 

 the premium in its value in silver plate, which I think is worthy 

 to be adopted by all our societies. However large or small 

 these premiums may be, by this mode every family will have a 

 memento, which, by its daily use, and by its having the name of 

 the donor inscribed thereon, is continually reminded of the giver, 

 and the object of its existence. 



In most cases when a small premium is awarded, the money 

 received soon passes out of sight and of mind, with no perma- 

 nent benefit to the recipient. Again, in many instances a 

 premium is awarded to an individual who cares nothing for its 

 value only as it tells that he received a high premium. And in 

 such instances would not a diploma better accomplish the results 

 desired ? 



There is one point in the management of fairs that has not 

 received the attention which its importance demands. Instead 

 of the principal attention of those attending the fairs being 

 given to that portion of the show grounds devoted to stock, as 

 cattle, sheep, &c, and to the exhibition of agricultural imple- 

 ments, there is a tendency to allow the exhibition of the horse, 

 in what is called a " horse-trot," to absorb the whole interest, 

 not only of the people, but of the managers and officers of the 

 society. The practice of paying the largest premiums for 

 purposes not calculated to promote their interest, has a tendency 

 to prevent some good farmers from attending the fairs. The 

 practice of giving the highest premium, not to the animal which 

 is calculated to be of the greatest benefit to the farmer, but to 

 those that are kept exclusively for show, will not promote their 

 best interest. 



But say the advocates of such performances, " something 

 must be done to draw a crowd." Draw a crowd ! Suppose a 

 crowd was not drawn ? If an enlightened people who are inter- 

 ested in the highest success of agricultural employment arc not 

 interested enough in the exhibition of the best of those animals 

 which the county can furnish, which are not only useful but 

 entirely essential to successful farming operations, to go and see 



