FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE, 109 



lecture was a public one, and the doctor illustrated his re- 

 marks by means of the dissected image of a horse, which 

 had then arrived from Paris. This anatomical figure, and 

 the two skeletons, were made available, as the property of 

 the society, in giving instruction during many years, having 

 been kept for a period at the State House, in the rooms of 

 the Board of Agriculture, and afterwards at the State Ag- 

 ricultural College at Amherst. They were finally disposed 

 of by the trustees, on Jan. 10, 1890, as a gift to Harvard 

 University, for use in its school of veterinary science. 



In 1844 the society's land in Brighton was graded for 

 street purposes, and sold in house lots by auction, yielding 

 about 16,000 to the treasury. At the cattle show of the 

 Worcester society, the Massachusetts society paid out this 

 year $1,032.40 in premiums. In 1845 a fall set of the so- 

 ciety's publications was sent to the Royal Agricultural So- 

 ciety of England, this action having been prompted by Ed- 

 ward Everett, then in that country ; and the official corre- 

 spondence, in the matter, passed through his hands. This 

 year the trustees ceased to offer premiums for nearly all 

 the purposes hitherto recognized, the feeling being, as offic- 

 ially stated, that the measures thus taken had, for the time, 

 produced the desired effect, " in stimulating farmers to a 

 habit of investigation and accurate noting of time, manner 

 and circumstance in which experiments had been made, 

 giving thereby exact knowledge whether particular experi- 

 ments had been successful or not'' ; and it was decided to 

 apply the income especially to the introduction of improved 

 breeds of dairy stock. 



An importation was authorized of a bull and four heifers- 

 of Ayrshire stock, and a like number of Devon stock, with 

 intention of maintaining the herds separately, under the 

 control of the society, that animals of pure blood might, 

 with certainty, be procurable in this State. This was the 

 most important undertaking of the kind, that, up to the date, 

 had been made by the society, and there appears to have 

 been much painstaking by all concerned, in carrying it 



