APPENDIX. xxvii 



reference to the agriculturist, and implies a duty which no farmer, 

 wherever located, has a right to discard. 



These views induce me to notice particularly one characteristic of the 

 Franklin County show. Not a hoof of neat stock or sheep was exhib- 

 ited from east of the Connecticut River, and very few horses, of which 

 six took premiums. Other departments of the exhibition were very 

 creditably, though sparsely represented. It appears to me it would be 

 well for the society to extend some additional encouragement to their 

 less favored brethren on the easterly side of the river, and thereby more 

 widely diffuse its usefulness. But the show of the society for this year, 

 in all its departments, was very complete and remarkably successful ; 

 highly creditable to the county and well worthy the favors of the Com- 

 monwealth. And I have no doubt the criticisms and suggestions I have 

 here offered will be received in the same kindly spirit by the public- 

 spirited managers of the society, in which they are made. 



The show of neat stock was very large, embracing about three hun- 

 dred and fifty head of all classes and ages, and 1 doubt if the same could 

 be equalled or excelled by any other show in New England, and a few 

 choice animals might be considered creditable rivals for any of their 

 kind and class in America. 



The town team from Deerfield numbered twenty pairs of oxen, show- 

 ing a gross weight of seventy-two thousand eight hundred and tweaty- 

 five pounds, averaging thi-ee thousand five hundred and ninety-one 

 pounds to the pair; the heaviest weighing four thousand one hundred 

 and eighty -five pounds, and the lightest, a pair of two year old steers, 

 weighing two thousand four hundred pounds. 



One very creditable feature of the exhibition of neat stock, to my 

 mind, was that many of the farmers did not select a few of the best of 

 their cattle for exhibition, but drove their whole herds, to show what it 

 was in these times to have a good stock of cattle. D. O. Fisk, of Shel- 

 burne, showed a herd of grade Durhams, forty-five in number ; 0. 0. 

 Bardwell, one of twenty-five ; William Long and Son, one of twenty- 

 seven; D. and H. Wells, one of seventeen; R. and J. Anderson, a 

 famous herd of twenty-four — one pair of three year old heifers, weighing 

 three thousand six hundred. Josiah Fogg, of Deerfield, exhibited a 

 thoroughbred herd of twelve Shorthorns. Samuel Fisk and Son, of 

 Shelburne, exhibited two pairs of two year old steers, weighing respec- 

 tively, two thousand eight hundred and ninety and two thousand six 

 hundred and sixty. The Shelburne cattle are grades of the Northum- 

 berland stock. The show of bulls was very satisfactory, embracing 

 Shorthorns, Devons, Jerseys and Herefords, whose record for pure 

 blood appeared to be well authenticated, none but pure bloods of their 

 class being allowed premiums in this society. 



