REPORTS FROM COUNTY SOCIETIES. 597 



If it were true that agricultural societies are organized for the sole purpose of 

 awarding premiums to exhibitors, and that exhibitors are entitled to all the money 

 paid at an annual fair, then it woiUd simply be a question of division upon an 

 equitable basis. Even under this view of the case difficulties would arise; for the 

 farmer, who, with two hired men and two of his boys, leads a fractious bull twenty 

 miles in a hot day, and receives only the paltry award often dollars for three days' 

 care of the animal and attendance upon the fair, might well complain that the 

 premium of one dollar and fifty cents to an exhibitor who only came one day and 

 brought one bushel of wheat under his wagon seat, was out of all proportion to the 

 intrinsic value of the two exhibits, the interest the public would take in them, and 

 the trouble and expense incident to the presentation and care of each. 



Premiums are incidental, tokens of superiority, rewards of merit. They should be 

 prized, not for their pecuniary value, but as evidences of success, as testimonials 

 fairly won, .as the unanimous verdict of a discriminating public. In such a case, the 

 blue ribbon is accepted with all it implies without regard to its money value. 



If the fair-going public would be equally well satisfied and interested in stalls full 

 of horses, pens full of sheep, or barns full of wheat, then "the bill of attractions" 

 would be a very simple aud easy one. 



Tastes differ; people are not all equally interested in the same subject or thing. 

 In order to secure the attendance of the public, fairs must be made in tlie fullest sense 

 possible expositions, museums, wherein are gathered all the varieties of domestic 

 animals, manufactured articles, inventions, works of art, curiosities, fancy articles, 

 and products of the field, garden, orchard aud household. 



Wheat is grown upon nearly every farm in Michigan. It is the leading market 

 crop of the State. Farmers will raise it irrespective of premiums, and they need 

 no special encouragement. Varieties of seed, methods of cultivation, fertilizers, land 

 best adapted, etc., are subjects connected with its growth, and can be brought under 

 the observation of the agricultural public through the medium of lectures, essays and 

 various publications of the day. 



Few farmers comparatively are willing to devote the time and means necessary to 

 improve materially the breed of animals. Societies have always deemed it a wise 

 policy to encourage the importation and introduction into every locality of blooded 

 or pure stock, and as a general rule, to stimulate any branch of farm industry that 

 misht otherwise remain neijlected. 



Many new varieties of grain have been sent out each year by the agricultural 

 department of the government, to be tested in various localities. The commis- 

 sioner desires the result of these experiments in each instance, to be sent to 

 Washington. I have been unable to procure any statements from persons test- 

 ing them in this locality. Under date of July 36, 1878, I wrote the commis- 

 sioner in substance as follows : 



As a general rule it has been a difficult matter to place the seeds where they will 

 receive a fair trial. Usually samples of wheat for instance are planted in some ob- 

 scure corner where some other crop has failed. The tests are incidental entirely, in- 

 differently made, and usually result in failure. Seeds from remote districts have to 

 become acclimated. French wlieats as imported do not ordinarily succeed in our 

 Michigan climate. The Australian and Russian do better, but they improve after the 

 first crop. 



Instead of an indiscriminate distribution to farmers, would it not be better to send 

 these seeds to the State Boards of Agriculture of each State, to be tested at an exper- 

 imental farm by experts, under all the ordinary conditions peculiar to the State. 

 Such as gave promise of success could be re-distributed by tiie State authorities to a 

 few prominent farmers in each county, and thus the object sought would be more 

 full}"^ and thoroughly secured. 



The report of the Committee on Farms was not in readiness to be submitted 

 for publication at the last fair. The committee consisting of Messrs. Bair, 

 Curtiss and the Secretary, unanimously awarded the first prize, for the "best 

 cultivated farm of not less than 120 acres," to Mr. AVm. H. Cobb, President 

 of our Agricultural Society. Mr. Cobb's farm is eligibly situated on one of 

 the main roads leading south, about four miles from the court house in this 

 village. It embraces two hundred and sixty-five acres of excellent farming 

 land, which, with the exception of twenty-five acres of woodland, is all under 



