ADVERTISEMENT. vii 



tors, yet return no statements whatever, or only a few, 

 in regard to the several objects which have gained these 

 premiums. We read the list of successful competitors 

 for their grain crops, their cows and fat cattle, their but- 

 ter and cheese, — with the sums awarded to them respec- 

 tively, — but beyond this, a matter comparatively unim- 

 portant to the public, all is blank ; not a word comes 

 to us, how the crop or animal was raised, what was 

 the cost, and what the profit or loss; how the dairy 

 products are managed, and what the amount produced. 

 Of all this, and much more we would like to know, we 

 learn nothing. If the abstract is good for anything, it is 

 that it gives useful and desirable information. Many of 

 the societies furnish this information. Why should not 

 ain Why should there not be as much ambition to 

 excel here, as in getting up a good show ? It needs only 

 proper effort on the part of the officers of the societies, to 

 make the furnishing of these statements an indispensable 

 condition of competing for their premiums, and to ap- 

 point only such men on committees as will make full 

 and detailed reports, and they will be forthcoming. Let 

 these reports and statements be returned, with the other 

 doings of the societies, and there will be the proper ma- 

 terials from which to compile the abstract. But we 

 could go even further than this ; such returns should be 

 made compulsory, under penalty of a forfeiture of the 

 annual gratuity given by the Commonwealth. If a Board 

 of Agriculture is established, it should be one of its first 

 duties to prepare tables of the average cost of production, 

 of premium crops, animals, &c., Szc. ; a sample of tables 



