ABSTRACT. 



MASS. SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 



The President and Secretary of the Massachusetts Society 

 for Promoting Agriculture, as required by the statute, offer the 

 following extracts of reports, showing the transactions of the 

 Society the past year. 



The Ayrshire and Devon stock, purchased by this Society, 

 have now passed out of their hands. The county societies 

 have been supplied gratuitously with specimens of the one or 

 the other of these races. Some of these animals may have 

 failed to fulfil the expectations formed of them, but there is 

 good reason to believe that the introduction of these races may 

 prove, on the whole, an important advantage to our farming 

 community. 



It may be still a question, whether the farmers of this Com- 

 monwealth have faith in the fact, that a good breed may be 

 made better, or are willing to admit that there is any breed of 

 milch cows superior to the (so called) native breed. This is a 

 natural inference from the fact that many of the county socie- 

 ties, who received the stock on condition of annual returns of 

 the state of the animals received, and the number and charac- 

 ter of the progeny pure and crossed, have neglected to make 

 such annual returns ; some returns have been made, full, accu- 

 rate and satisfactory. 



During the last season, several fine animal- of the race, gen- 

 erally known by the name of Alderney, have been imported by 

 the Trustees. Great care was taken in selecting them, and in 

 order to insure a successful result, the Treasurer. T. Motley, 

 Jr., visited the island of Jersey expressly for that purpose. 

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