376 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



upon my attention. Without any desire or intention to specify 

 the Middlesex, or any other agricultural society in the Common- 

 wealth, and without denying to all of them the credit of every 

 effort to make the most of their opportunities, and especially 

 without under-estimating results in the past, I may take the 

 opportunity to say that it has seemed to me for some time that 

 a number of our older agricultural societies had accomplished 

 nearly all that we have a right to expect of them under existing 

 circumstances. The exhibitions have come to be considered too 

 much as mere matters of course, the forms of which are to be 

 gone through with, and a certain amount of money distributed 

 in premiums, quite a proportion of which really goes for 

 accidental products, for which the competitor is entitled to little 

 or no credit. 



This result I believe to be to some extent inherent in the. 

 plan upon which these societies conduct their operations. They 

 at first serve a very useful purpose in awakening an interest in 

 their localities, and in distributing among the multitude, the 

 knowledge possessed by the best informed minds. The exhibi- 

 tions present to the eye of the novice every facility for the 

 formation of an enlarged judgment upon all those matters 

 which especially interest him. Improved animals and other 

 products and processes are thus invaluable in presenting a 

 healthful stimulus to the inquiring mind, and the effect is to 

 increase the knowledge and elevate the condition of community. 

 This effect, however, exhibits itself in a diminishing degree as 

 time passes. After a few years the interest abates, and finally 

 there comes to be mainly a scramble among the competitors for 

 the money distributed in premiums. The reports of committees 

 grow less and less interesting and suggestive, and at last all 

 that is expected even of a committee is the bare anno*incement 

 of the premiums awarded, without comment, of little or no use 

 to any body except the recipients. I do not say that such is the 

 result in all cases necessarily or really, but only that such is 

 the tendency. In some of the older societies there is, together 

 with favoring local circumstances, a degree of enthusiasm sufli- 

 cient to resist this tendency, and the good influence of such 

 societies, ])osscsscs a more j)orniancnt and endui'ing character. 



The <iuestiou naturally aiises, what can be done to remedy 

 this diflicuity ? Is tbere any practicable ])lan through the 



