FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 31 



streams that yet beneficently flow, the " theoretical far- 

 mers " were in fact a very practical sort of men. 



Steady progress on the lines already indicated was made 

 by the society during the early years of the present century 

 and the board of management showed special activity and 

 enterprise in widening the field of usefulness. Improve- 

 ments in farming methods and apparatus received prompt 

 and cordial recognition, and instances occurred where pre- 

 miums were awarded to person.s living out of the State. 

 No premiums were given on patented articles, but recom- 

 mendation of such was made, when deserved, in the official 

 publications. The first year of the century brought out a 

 suggestion, which, though not immediately acted upon, was 

 frequently discussed and gradually gained favor, namely, 

 that it would be an effective encouragement to farming in- 

 dustry to establish near Boston an annual or semi-annual 

 cattle fair. When the idea took shape in 1816, it was not 

 as a cattle fair but a cattle show. The original proposal 

 was to bring together farming animals and other products 

 for sale on the spot, as well as for competition for premi- 

 ums. 



Considering the success and manifest utility which have 

 since characterized exhibitlbns of this kind it might seem, 

 at first glance, that the board of management was over- 

 cautious, or lacked insight as to what would be a popular 

 and taking thing. To judge rightly in this as in many 

 other matters wherein the society took action during the 

 first forty years, the vast difference of circumstances then 

 and now must be taken into account. In the instance here 

 referred to it is to be remembered that thirty years were to 

 elapse between the date of the suggestion and that of the 

 first railroad. It is easy now to assemble great throngs of 

 people and entertain them with ocular proofs of superior 

 farming drawn from a wide spread territory. But in 1801 

 an exhibition at Cambridge or Brighton of specimens 

 gathered from the nearest towns of Essex, Middlesex and 



