126 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



In 1867 it was decided to import a small lot of Jersey 

 cattle, and to make a conditional gift of them to the Farm 

 School, an educational institution situated on Thompson's 

 island, in Boston harbor. The expectation was that the 

 herd, being thus isolated, would become of high reputa- 

 tion, as unquestionably pure-blood Jerseys. In the spring 

 of 1868, Mr. Thomas Motley, first vice president of the 

 society, voyaged to Europe and visited the isle of Jersey, 

 where he bought, for the society, a bull and three heifers, 

 which, on arrival, were placed at Thompson's island. 

 The cost altogether was about $1500. One of the condi- 

 tions of the gift was that the bull calves should be the 

 property of the society. Gifts of young bulls were sub- 

 sequently made, one to the Sailors' Snug Harbor, one to 

 the National Sailors' Home, and one to the Barnstable 

 County Agricultural Society. One or two were sold. 

 About the year 1873 the herd suffered a decline, and the 

 society relinquished, for a while, any responsibility. Un- 

 der a new method of management, a complete restoration 

 was effected, so that in 1879 the trustees expressed, offi- 

 cially, their full satisfaction, and ordered an expenditure 

 of $108 for a proper recording in the herd-book, and the 

 putting up of posts, rings and chains in the place of stan- 

 chions, for the greater comfort of the animals. 



In October, 1868, the subject of artificial propagation 

 of food fishes was brought up in an essay by Theodore 

 Lyman, the treasurer of the society, the argument, in part, 

 being directed to a profitable use of brooks and ponds by 

 farmers. At the December meeting, premiums of -$300 

 and 200 were offered for the two best fish-breeding es- 

 tablishments for fresh-water fishes. There were six or 

 seven competitors, and the award of the larger sum was 

 made, in 1872, to Dexter, Bacon & Coolidge of West Barn- 

 stable, and the smaller to Walter Gilbert of Russell Mills, 

 Plymouth. In 1869 action was taken preparatory to giv- 

 ing, in the autumn, a stock exhibition by the society, in 

 Boston, in the building called the " Coliseum," a structure 

 erected for a musical festival held in the course of the 



