34 



productions by the side of our own. But by what rules are those 

 productions thus brought into competition examined, and your prizes 

 awarded 1 Why, from the very necessity of the case, no rules at all. 

 Your examining committees, having no standard by which to judge 

 the comparative scale of excellence in domestic animals, excepting, 

 perhaps, a false estimate or prejudice or individual taste, differ 

 widely in their opinion of what is good, or what is bad ; of what is 

 deserving, and what is undeserving ; and with all the flourish and 

 eclat of a splendid and imposing show, perhaps the worst animals 

 take your highest prizes. As a consequence, the truly good and 

 scientific breeder leaves in disgust; while the careless, indifferent 

 one, walks off in triumph, glorying in the brute which ignorance, 

 accident, or chance has thus given him credit for, and he is forever 

 ruined for all further improvement, by having his ignorance or pre- 

 judices endorsed by the Society, and holds, as a matter of course, the 

 useful and accurate breeder in contempt. All this mischief, Agricul- 

 tural Education and Science would rectify ; and that not alone. The 



f 



adoption of rules of proceeding based upon accurately defined results, 

 and ascertained through correct principles, would give to your Society 

 that high stamp of authority in its decisions which, from its name and 

 position, it should command; and without which, it must remain 

 shorn of half its utility. 



I have thus, gentlemen of the Society, tediously to you, I fear, 

 thrown together the imperfect and random thoughts which this sub- 

 ject has suggested; a subject which lies near my heart, and has long 

 been to many of you one of deep solicitude. If, in the arguments 

 and illustrations advanced, I have spoken some unwelcome truths in 

 a tone of apparent censure, and kept back the voice of commenda- 

 tion, it is not that I am insensible that we may also contemplate the 

 many subjects of gratulation and pride, which exist around us, and 

 have been won by the labors of an intelligent, an active, and a won- 



