24 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



cow daily. And the same quantity of the same grain has been 

 given to them during the last half of September, and of Octo- 

 ber. 



The management of the dairy has, in consequence of the 

 sickness of my wife, been wholly confided to my daughter the 

 present year. Previously, she had had no particular training for 

 this branch of housewifery. She engaged in it with alacrity, 

 and her own health has been benefitted by the occupation. 



You will, I trust, pardon the suggestion, that it should be 

 made a special object of our agricultural societies, to interest 

 and awaken the attention of the female part of the community — 

 perhaps by associating ladies in the examination of such articles 

 as they are best competent to judge of; and by making the ex- 

 hibition of such articles a distinct department of the annual 

 fair. Or, perhaps, by ofi"ering a premium for the rearing of 

 fowls, — the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, or fruit trees, — 

 or the keeping of bees, and such like. The dairy, needlework, 

 knitting, &c., belong of course to them. But I would bring 

 them into more active employment, in the open air. One of 

 the best conducted dairy establishments in this town, where 

 five or six cows are kept, is ivholly taken care of by two fe- 

 males, a widow and her daughter. Mothers have much to do 

 with the training of their sons to a love of, and an intelligent 

 preparation for, a farmer's life. It is from their interest in, and 

 their skilful management of the labors which belong chiefly to 

 them, upon a farm, that their sons learn to love, and to practice 

 with success, the business of farming. 

 October 30, 1849. 



The following letter, from the best authority as to the intro- 

 duction of foreign animals into New England, will be read with 

 interest, and fully explains the remark made at the close of the 

 Report on the dairy. 



Ten Hills Farm, near Boston, Mass., > 



December 10, 1849. > 



My Dear Sir : — In reply to yours of the 23d ult. and of the 

 5th inst. ; the first and only importation, within my knowledge, 



