FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 101 



made desirable importations. During the period of the cat- 

 tle shows, such animals, as well as others imported by the 

 society or coming to it by gift, made a part of the attraction 

 of the Brighton annual festival. 



An importation by the society, in 1816, of three Alderney 

 cattle has been mentioned. The next of record is an im- 

 portation of a bull and two cows from Flanders, in 1817, 

 by Israel Thorndike of Boston. He was a member of the 

 society from the year 1792, and its vice president from 1823 

 to 1829. He made a gift to 'the society, in 1818, of the bull 

 and one of the cows. The animals were of much celebrity, 

 and their progeny, as they appeared from time to time at 

 the cattle shows, won great admiration. A bull of the 

 Teeswater breed, of reputation in England at the time, was 

 imported by a member of the society in 1818. It was also 

 known as the u short-horn " breed. In the same year 

 Charles Thorndike, a son of the above mentioned Mr. 

 Thorndike, imported a bull and two cows from Portugal. 

 In 1819 Gorham Parsons, a trustee, and Cornelius Coolidge, 

 a member of the society, each made importations of cattle 

 of the Holderness breed. In 1820 was made the first of a 

 succession of gifts to the society from two English gentle- 

 men, who were brothers, Sir Isaac Coffin and Gen. John 

 Coffin. The former held rank as an admiral in the British 

 navy. At the time of making these gifts, Gen. Coffin was 

 residing in New Brunswick. Their interest in the society 

 was derived from the fact that they were both of Massachu- 

 setts, having been born in Boston. Both were in the royal 

 service at the outbreak of the war of the Revolution, and in 

 that contest abided by the fortunes of the British flag. 

 Neither the experiences nor the results of the war had effect 

 to eradicate their regard for their ancestral home, a feeling 

 to which, as will appear in the record, they bore testimony 

 in a very practical way. 



In 1820 General Coffin presented the society with a stal- 

 lion of the breed called in England, the " light cart " or 

 u Suffolk Punch'' breed. It was a superior animal in ap- 



