64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tern enough. He does not make every blow tell. He does 

 not make enough of experience. He does not think enough 

 and compare results and learn from his failures as well as his 

 successes. He needs a demonstration which forces upon his 

 mind wise conclusions, and at the same time is an impulse to 

 action, which shall lift him out of the ruts that bind his load. , 



Just here the value of his weekly agricultural paper, and 

 the "Farmer's Club," is seen. But he is tired at evening 

 when he reads the paper, and the discussions of the Club per- 

 plex him, because no two speakers agree about either means 

 or ends. 



The annual ftiir of his agricultural society exactly meets 

 his case. It brings together tangible results. It shows what 

 men, situated just like himself, have accomplished under the 

 same favorable or unfavorable circumstances as his own. 

 There is set before him food for thought; a standard of com- 

 parison ; a test of methods ; the proof of what skill and care 

 and persistent eifort have accomplished. 



But if the pens are all filled Avith blood-stock, beyond his 

 means to purchase, and the tables are covered with fruits 

 from the greenhouse and borders of the professed gardener, 

 and vegetables which were raised by the extra labor and extra 

 manuring which ready ca^h can command, he is not stimu- 

 lated and encouraged. He is interested, but not helped. 

 He sees the result of money, not of work. He feels that 

 what attracts most notice and receives all the premiums is 

 beyond his reach. His ambition is dampened rather than 

 quickened. 



The blood-stock has its place in our agricultural fairs as 

 its owner has his place in our agricultural societies. Noth- 

 ino- has given a greater impulse to improved methods of 

 farming and the general prosperity of our rural communities 

 than tiie coming in of men of taste and fortune. By the in- 

 troduction of labor-saving implements and varied and contin- 

 ual experiments in the use of fertilizers and rotation of crops, 

 and the testing of new theories, and trial of different breeds 

 and systems of breeding, and by a hearty and noble liberal- 

 ity, these men have become a most welcome adjunct and help- 

 ful means to the farming interest. And no fair would be 

 complete without their thoroughbreds and the results of their 



