INDICATIONS OF PROGRESS. 803 



turkeys, chickens and bees. This class arc, perhaps, most suc- 

 cessful ; it may be for natural reasons. The bee gathers honey 

 abundantly from the wild flowers upon our mountains ; our 

 poultry not only glean the fields of the little grain we scatter in 

 harvesting, but arc destroyers of myriads of insects, which, if 

 not destroyed, would be destroying the crops wc so carefully 

 husband. 



Our sheep are greedy to get that which the horse utterly 

 refuses to eat, while the colts thrive nowhere so well as when 

 they are allowed to pick their rations from the sheep-rack, 

 readily accepting that which the sheep rejects. A variety of 

 stock in the same pasture as well as the barn seems desirable, if 

 we would save all and let nothing be lost. 



In all the different pursuits of agriculture, I am happy to 

 state, there is manifest progress among us. Our dairymen 

 boast of Dr. Loring's and William Birnie's Ayrshires. Our 

 beef-makers show you the descendants of the herds of Thorne, 

 Lathrop, and others. Our working oxen refer you to the former 

 stock of S. & L. Hurlburt, while our young horses are claimed 

 to be the lineal descendants of Justin Morgan. 



We have the Berkshire, a sprout from old Black Hawk, owned 

 in Becket, which is the popular sire of many of our young 

 horses. Also, General Grant, of Hamiltonian stock, owned in 

 Hinsdale, having recently come to us backed up with strong 

 credentials. He is considered a horse of great promise. 



Not satisfied with the ways of forty years ago, we have begun 

 to reclaim swamps, undordrain our meadows, dig and remove 

 the rocks, using our horses for mowing and raking, instead of 

 ourselves, consequently finding time to attend farmers' clubs, 

 festivals, cattle-shows, and to read Flint's Agricultural Report, 

 building better and more commodious houses and barns, doing 

 more to beautify and ornament our homes. 



We have to-day, instead of the light fleece Saxon sheep, flocks 

 of high-bred Spanish Merino, with an occasional sire, carrying a 

 twenty pound fleece upon his back. In place of the Old Bake- 

 well, we can show you samples of the best South Downs and 

 Cotswolds the country affords. Instead of the native cattle, 

 poorly fed and bred, without care or forethought, we produce 

 animals bred with careful study, w T ell fed, that are not beat at 

 our glorious New England fair. 



