288 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



particularly to suggest the adoption of some system l)y which 

 committees and competitors shall be governed. The societies 

 of other States, copying the example of England, have establish- 

 ed scales of points, by which all the foreign breeds of cattle 

 are judged, and no animal not having a certain number of points, 

 can in any event obtain a premium. I hope that the Secretary 

 of the Board of Agriculture, among all the other good things 

 which he may recommend, will suggest a scale of points by 

 which to determine the merits of our native stock, and that it 

 will be adopted by us. Then every body, competitors as well 

 as committees, would have something to guide them. Now one 

 man regards the color and shape of the horns, another the 

 setting on of the tail, another the shape of the head, one a 

 coarse, large framed animal, another a small compact one, and 

 there are as many different principles, real or imaginary, which 

 govern men in making up their judgment, as there are judges. 

 In general now, if a man attends to the condition of his animal, 

 has him as fat as possible, he is sure of a premium. These 

 remarks are made generally without any intention of applying 

 them to the animals exhibited this year, for they were not so 

 deserving of any such censure, as oftentimes has been the case 

 in previous years. They are made simply because an evil 

 exists which ought to be remedied, and attention is called to 

 the subject with the hope that the remedy will be applied. 



T. E. Payson, Chairman. 



WORCESTER. 



From the Report of the Committee on Bulls of One Year 



old and under. 



The number of entries in this department was unusually 

 small — only three — two for premium and one for exhibition. 



This class of animals is receiving a larger share of the atten- 

 tion of farmers than formerlj^, and the notion has now become 

 pretty generally entertained by them that it costs no more to 

 keep good breeds of neat stock, than poor or indifferent. Hence 

 the importance of having our dairy cows and working oxen of 

 breeds of known excellence for their respective purposes. As 



