FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 151 



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 

 conditions of the gift was that the bull calves should 

 be the property of the society. Gifts of young bulls 

 were subsequently 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. Under a new method of manage- 

 ment, a complete restoration was effected, so that in 

 1879 the trustees expressed, officially, their full satis- 

 faction, 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 stanchions, 

 for the greater comfort of the animals. 



In October, 1868, the subject of artificial propaga- 

 tion 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 meet- 

 ing, premiums of $300 and $200 were offered for the 

 two best fish-breeding establishments 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 Barnstable, and the smaller 

 to Walter Gilbert of Russell Mills, Plymouth. In 

 1869 action was taken preparatory to giving, in the 

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

 in the building called the "Coliseum," a structrue 

 erected for a musical festival held in the course of the 

 summer; but the negotiations failed through a divi- 

 sion of opinion, or of authority, among the owners of 



