176 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



WORCESTER COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In transmitting the reports of the operations and results of 

 this society the past year, its president, Hon. Levi Lincoln, in- 

 dicates, as most worthy of public notice and consideration, the 

 remarks in the report on the ploughing match, upon the ap- 

 pearance and treatment of the cattle in the performance of their 

 unusually hard stint of work ; and in the report on milch cows, 

 the curious and interesting statistics of the products of the 

 dairy, and of the comparative value of the farm stock, in the 

 different towns of the county, with the useful practical sugges- 

 tions in reference to the increase of the products and the im- 

 provement of the stock. The statements of the competitors, 

 from their successful results, will encourage yet greater atten- 

 tion to the race of animals adapted to the objects of the dairy, 

 and recommend the best selection of individuals, and the most 

 liberal provision for their rearing and keeping. The appear- 

 ance and the influence of the disease of the kine pox, in one of 

 the cows of John W. Lincoln, as stated by him, will interest 

 not the farmer only, but the physiologist, and awaken new re- 

 gard to a discovery, Avhich through the medium of the brute 

 creation, has proved one of the greatest blessings a beneficent 

 Providence has ever vouchsafed to the family of man. 



The great inequality in the different towns, of the proportion 

 of stock to the population, as given in the tables of Mr. Denny, 

 may be accounted for, in a good measure, by the different pur- 

 suits and occupations of the inhabitants ; for where, in some 

 places, the population is sparse and almost purely agricultural, 

 in other parts of the county, the sources of employment are di- 

 verse and multiplied, and manufactures and the mechanic arts 

 induce to frequent and dense settlements. 



The testimony to the fine thrift and promising appearance of 

 the full blood Ayrshire and Devon stock, introduced into the 

 county through the munificent liberality of the trustees of the 



