454 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



4th. Your delegate finds here one practice that is growing 

 to be an evil, though himself was convulsed with laughter at 

 what he condemns. The report on swine was one of the most 

 irresistibly ludicrous performances, that it has been the lot of 

 your delegate to hear. The report was replete with wit, and 

 was delivered in a most creditable style. So, also, with the 

 report on poultry. The committee on swine, also, were some 

 five or six gentlemen of the amplest dimensions, and were 

 selected with a view solely to their avoirdupois weight in the 

 community. All these things are vastly amusing, but the con- 

 dition of our swine will never be mended by smiles. Our 

 farmers need good solid information on this subject, and that 

 of poultry. In these two divisions of stock, almost every 

 farmer is a breeder,, and the best instruction and advice should 

 be afforded to him by the reports, which are frequently the 

 only agricultural intelligence he receives from year to year. 



WILLIAM S. KING. 



Exhibition of the Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden 



Society. 



For more than a quarter of a century, this was the only 

 agricultural society in the valley of the Connecticut. There 

 are now three others,* viz., the Hampden Society, the Franklin 

 Society, and the Hampshire Society. The name of the parent 

 society seems almost to be absorbed by her young and vigorous 

 offspring, and yet it is so ancient and honorable that it may 

 well be retained. The only serious evil likely to arise in the 

 case, is, that as the parent society covers the same ground with 

 the other societies, it may happen that premiums may be award- 

 ed, from year to year, for the same animals or products by two 

 societies. In multiplying agricultural societies in the Com- 

 monwealth, it could not have been the intention of the Legis- 

 lature to introduce this practice ; and so far, at least, as regards 

 the funds given to them by the State, the practice, if it arise, 

 ought not to be encouraged. It becomes all the societies re- 

 ceiving the State bounty, faithfully to dispense it, as, apart 



