1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT— No. 4. 317 



public marriages in the air, and all sorts of circus attractions 

 to keep their heads above water? "It is amusement for the 

 people, and is legitimate," says one writer. But is it 

 amusement for the people that the State is seeking? It may 

 be good policy for the State to promote local holidays and 

 to contribute money to the entertainment of the people ; 

 but, if it is, let it be done under its right name, and not 

 under the guise of " for the promotion of agriculture." Let 

 the funds contributed by the State for this purpose be called 

 "amusement funds," rather than "agricultural funds." I do 

 not charge nor should it be inferred that the State bounty is 

 directly used for the amusement of the people, for each 

 society is required to pay out in premiums for agricultural 

 purposes as much as it receives in bounty from the State ; 

 but there are societies which could not exist without the 

 bounty, and yet while receiving it are paying more attention 

 to the amusement features than the agricultural features, and 

 thus the State is made indirectly to aid in the support of a 

 class of societies where the promotion of agriculture is 

 secondary to the amusement of the people. 



The Twelve-mile Limit. 

 At the present rate of formation of agricultural societies, 

 ostensibly for the purpose of promoting agriculture, but 

 practically for a local holiday, by 1900 we shall have socie- 

 ties within the twelve-mile limit established under the pres- 

 ent law, all over the State, each drawing its bounty of 

 $600. On the twelve-mile-limit plan, according to mathe- 

 matical calculation, there is room in the State for fifteen or 

 twenty more societies ; and on the hexagonal plan, plant- 

 ing them as we would so many trees in an apple-orchard, 

 we might squeeze in one hundred more. If the twelve-mile- 

 limit plan is feasible, it is just as feasible to begin now and 

 plant the remaining one hundred, without reference to in- 

 habitants or local conditions. So far as Worcester County 

 is concerned, a portion of which I happen to represent, she 

 will no doubt put in her work before 1900, and have the 

 entire county dotted with flourishing cattle shows, so called, 

 where the jockeys and fakirs will reign supreme, while the 

 cow will be crowded into one corner of the grounds, as 



