46 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



To no country can we so well turn for instruction in the 

 management of our agricultural societies as to our mother 

 country, Old England. I did not meet with a case where a 

 committee of judges was composed of more than three persons, 

 and they often consist of only two members. 



No entries can be made with the secretary of a society after 

 a fixed day, at least several weeks before the show takes 

 place, thus allowing the necessary provision to be properly 

 made for the exhibitors, the positions on the grounds to be 

 detinitely assigned beforehand, and a complete catalogue of 

 every animal and article exhibited to be printed, containing a 

 plan of the gronnds, showing the exact position of the vari- 

 ous classes. These catalogues are for sale during the exhi- 

 bitions, and as soon as all the prizes have been awarded, a 

 list of these also is printed and sold. The former sold for 

 about twenty-six cents, and the latter for half that amount. 



By the methods adopted in England and Scotland, the 

 prizes are so carefully awarded that inferior and unworthy 

 animals, etc., very seldom, if ever, find their way into the 

 prize-lists. 



The officers of the societies personally superintended the 

 carrying out of all the arrangements upon the show-ground, 

 assisted in expediting the duties of the judges by preventing 

 delays in bringing animals into the rings and in other ways, 

 saw that the prize-cards were properly attached to the ani- 

 mals, had order enforced when such was necessary, and 

 made themselves generally useful in whatever ways were 

 possible. 



Suitable offices were provided upon the grounds for the 

 government of the societies, judges and reporters. A re- 

 freshment-room was also there under the patronage of the 

 society, but was in no way financially connected with the 

 society. 



Yorkshire being a part of England where many hunters 

 are bred, this class of horses formed a large part of the ex- 

 hibition, and a magnificent lot of animals they were. A 

 large ring, about two hundred and eighty feet long l)y one 

 hundred and thirtj^ feet wide, with rounded corners, was used 

 for judging them, and there was also^ a similar ring with a 

 swinging hurdle in its centre for testing their leaping pow- 



