421 



many or large premiums. Every direct and well conducted ex- 

 periment, however, in the improvement of the breed of ani- 

 mals, every importation into the county of valuable animals for 

 this object, ought, to a certain extent, to be encouraged ; but 

 these cases will be easily distinguislied from those in which 

 none of these objects are sought, or are likely to be accomplished. 

 2. The objects in my opinion to which the Middlesex Agri- 

 cultural Society should principally direct its attention, are ag- 

 ricultural experiments, the redemption of waste lands, the im- 

 provements of pasture grounds, the irrigation of lands, the 

 planting and care of wood lands, the cultivation of live fences, 

 experiments with various manures, the amendment of soils, the 

 increase of manures, the culture and improvement of crops of 

 every description, the fatting of pork, the management of poul- 

 try, the management of milking establishments, the making 

 of butter, the winter keeping of cows, the fatting of calves, 

 the management of bees, the introduction of new fruits, the 

 culture of orchards, the care and keeping of horses, the fatting 

 of wethers, the invention of agricultural implements, the con- 

 struction of farm buildings, the art of ploughing, the training 

 of cattle, and especially the general management of farms.* 

 These objects are intimately connected with the agriculture 

 proper to Middlesex, and to which their premiums might, with 

 much more advantage be directed, than to the mere exhibition 

 of cattle, from which no general or special advantage is to come 

 other than in the form of a premium to the accidental owner. 

 There is, I know, always a difficulty in inducing farmers to 

 come forward as competitors for the premiums on farms ; and 

 this often arises from diffidence or the apprehension of failure 

 in obtaining the premiums. To obviate this, let an active and 

 respectable committee of the Society appropriate a week, each 

 season, to going through the county and visiting, with or with- 

 out invitation, such farms as attract their attention, and induce 

 the farmers to show their improvements and communicate their 

 farm accounts ; and then let them appropriate where they think 



• * Appendix, O. 



