276 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



miles away. It is not in the agricultural department the 

 injury comes. If we must have this trotting, wx want it to 

 pay. I will only ask you one question in connection with 

 this matter, — a question of facts. If the Weymouth 

 Society appropriates $600 or $700 for horse trotting at its 

 annual fair, and the Bristol County Society appropriates 

 13,600, and both societies hold their fair the same week, 

 how many entries do you suppose the Weymouth Society 

 would be likelj^ to get? 



The Bristol County Society is ten miles south of Brock- 

 ton, and the Weymouth Society is ten miles north of 

 Brockton. All the conditions in connection with Brockton 

 are applicable to each of them alike. It would be futile for 

 the Weymouth Society to compete Avith Brockton. The 

 first two days of the Brockton fair last fall the weather was 

 unfavorable. At that time the citizens of the place took 

 hold and did what no other city or town in the country 

 would have done. Every individual was interested in the 

 success of that society. It is not so in Taunton or Wey- 

 mouth. 



The society pajdng out the next largest amount for trot- 

 ting purposes is the AVorcestcr Socict}^ |2,776, and this 

 society has a fund comparing with Brockton, is centrally 

 located and surrounded by agricultural societies, and of 

 course it can carry out anything it wishes. Is it just and 

 right, in the interest of the State and in the interest of the 

 surrounding societies, that this society or an}^ of these 

 societies should pa}' such an amount for trotting alone? 



Among the other societies that pay these large amoiuits 

 are the Franklin County, $1,200; the Iloosac Valley, 

 $1,500; the Housatonic, $1,()00; and the Worcester North- 

 west, $1,650. The Iloosac Valley Society increased the 

 amount from $1,000 to $1,500 a year ago, which is rather a 

 bad omen, while the Housatonic Society reduced its amount 

 a year ago from $1,800 to $1,600. These amounts are 

 large, comparatively, in proportion to the receipts of these 

 societies. No society in the State, and I will not except a 

 single one, can open an account in the different departments 

 connected with these agricultural societies and show that 



