FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 149 



territory between South Bay and Harrison Avenue, 

 $1,000, and the same year, to the Plymouth County 

 society, for premiums, $125; in 1856, for premiums on 

 dairy stock at an exhibition held at the same time with 

 the annual cattle show of the Worcester County 

 society, nearly $2,000; in 1857, for premiums at a 

 State exhibition, the awards being made under the 

 direction of the Board of Agriculture, $2,000; in 1858, 

 as a subscription for the purchase, for the Natural 

 History Society, of Dr. T. W. Harris's collection of 

 insects in Massachusetts injurious to vegetation, 

 $150; in 1861, to aid the Barnstable Agricultural 

 Society, $200; in 1866, to aid the Botanical Garden 

 of Harvard University, $500; in 1867, to pay the 

 tuition fees of three deserving students at the State 

 Agricultural College, $150. 



Various pamphlets relating to agriculture were 

 issued from time to time, and the expense of an agri- 

 cultural survey of the counties of Middlesex and 

 Essex, in 1858 and 1859, was met by the society. In 

 1858, premiums of $150 in each case were offered for 

 the best essay on the comparative economy of the 

 labor of horses and oxen ; on the most desirable breed 

 of neat cattle for this state, having regard for yield of 

 milk, for work and for beef; on manures; and on agri- 

 cultural education. In 1855 was begun a series of 

 annual importations of different varieties of turnip 

 and beet seeds, which continued for ten years. The 

 lowest figure of value in any year was $104, and the 

 highest $350. For two years the record is of weight 

 only, viz.; 200 pounds each of yellow-globe mangold, 

 long-red mangold, ruta baga and sugar beet, and the 

 next year somewhat less than half the quantity. These 

 seeds were distributed among the farmers of the state, 

 gratuitously, principally through the Board of Agri- 



