40 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



farther beyond the mind's capacity to estimate the 

 money value of the improvement. Much of the benefit 

 thus reahzed by the whole people is attributable to the 

 endeavors of the society, constantly exerted during 

 the long lapse of years, and much has resulted from 

 efforts otherwise made or prompted. Here, however, 

 was the beginning of any concerted action, in the offer 

 of a premium in July, 1801, for sheep for breeding 

 purposes, "superior to any breed now in the State" — 

 a premium of $30 for each animal introduced into the 

 State, and if from a foreign country, $50. 



In 1802 the trustees had their attention called to 

 the fact that Col. David Humphreys of Connecticut, 

 had that year imported 100 Merino sheep. In accord- 

 ance with their practice of ignoring State lines in 

 specially meritorious cases, the board voted to him 

 the society's gold medal of $50. At the next monthly 

 meeting after the passage of this vote it was an- 

 nounced that, in October, 1801, a pair of Merino sheep 

 had been imported from France by Seth Adams of 

 Dorchester, Mass. The fact having been verified by 

 a committee, a $50 gold medal was given him. From 

 the year 1814 dates the practice, which has steadily 

 been followed, of importation, by the society itself, of 

 choice breeding animals, this first instance having been 

 from France, of tw^o bulls and two cows of the Alder- 

 ney, or what is known as the Jersey breed. 



In 1805 the General Court recognized the public 

 utihty of the society's endeavors by granting to it a 

 township of six miles square in the district of Maine, 

 in aid of the proposed professorship of natural history. 

 While the proceeds of the sale of this tract did not add 

 to the society's permanent fund it enabled the trustees 

 to ascertain, by a satisfactory test, what practical and 

 direct benefit to agriculture might be derived through 



