420 



1. In the first place, a large proportion of the premiums 

 is paid upon live stock. The object of these premiums 

 should be not the reward or complimenting of an individual 

 for the mere accidental possession of a fine animal but for some 

 improvement attempted, or effected, or intended to be effected 

 in the breed of animals in question. Animals are sometimes 

 purchased at a distance or in another county, and brought into 

 the county for no other purpose than to secure the premium. 

 Now why should the owner of such an animal, to whose im- 

 provement he has contributed nothing, and who by offering or 

 buying this animal, has no view to the improvement of the 

 live stock of the county, why should he be rewarded with a 

 premium ? If a man will import a valuable animal from abroad, 

 with a view to testing his qualities, or propagating his blood, 

 or if he will raise a superior bull, which he keeps for the use 

 of his neighborhood as well as the improvement of his own 

 stock, or if he will raise a cow for the good quahties of those 

 animals from whom she has descended, or show by successive 

 experiments, that he has actually effected some amendment in 

 the dairy or thriving properties of an animal, or if he will show 

 by exact experiments in feeding his animals, how their milking 

 properties or their dairy properties may be improved, then most 

 certainly he would merit a premium. But if it is the mere 

 showing of some single animal, which may have accidentally 

 fallen into his hands, his possession of which indicates no 

 merit on his part and promises no direct benefit to the agricul- 

 tural community, the premium bestowed on him, to say the 

 least, fails entirely to accomplish the objects of the govern- 

 ment. 



But again, with the exception of some swine, Middlesex 

 county is not, and never can be, a stock-raising district. This 

 matter cannot be forced. The deficiency of pasturage, the high 

 price of land, and the value of agricultural produce in the 

 market, will prevent the raising of neat stock in the county 

 ever being other than an expensive and unprofitable operation. 

 It wonld not seem desirable that it should be encouraged by 



