424 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pul). Doc. 



right ; but should we attenipt to carry out that idea at this 

 late day among some other societies one year Avould about 

 terminate their existence. In many instances these grounds 

 are almost invalual)le as public parks or for public gather- 

 ings, as well as for agricultural purposes, especially in a 

 mixed community, both agricultural and mechanical. In 

 some cases gifts of grounds are made to the towns for public 

 parks, where nothing of this kind exists. 



It would perhaps be unwise to discontinue trotting races 

 wholly, when we take into account the great interest there 

 is in the horse throughout the country. Every society 

 knows about what its average annual recei[)ts are, and 

 should govern itself accordingly in its (jffer of premiums. 

 The day is past when the offer of very large premiums can 

 be relied on to increase the receipts. 



The officers of the Massachusetts Society in 1811, in 

 speaking of the benefits resulting from its organization, 

 say that "Great improvements have been made in butter 

 and cheese. The breeding of cattle and of sheep has been 

 more attended to than formerly. The trustees feel the 

 highest satisfaction in having offered the first premium, five 

 hundred dollars, for encouraging the importation of Merino 

 sheep." In the offers of premiums of this society at this 

 time were one hundred dollars for the cheapest method of 

 destroying the canker worm ; thirty dollars for the largest 

 quantity of wool, meat and tallow from the smallest number 

 of sheep, not less than ten in number ; one hundred dollars 

 for the cheapest method of raising water from rivers and 

 ponds, ten or twenty feet, for the ])urpose of irrigation ; 

 fifty dollars for the greatest variety of grasses ; and "to 

 the person who shall ascertain ])y accurate analysis the con- 

 stituent })arls of several fertile soils, respectively, and in 

 like maimer the j)arts of several poor soils, and shall dis- 

 cover the defects of the latter, and shall show by actual 

 experim(!nts how the said d(;fects may be remedied, by the 

 addition of earths or other ingredients Avhich abound in the 

 country, and in a manner that may be practisiul by common 

 farmers, fifty dollars." This, it will be seen, was previous 

 to the establishment of airricultural collcires, and before 

 agricultural chemistry had been much introduced into our 

 educational institutions. 



