FARMS. 7 



of a prcmhim. Under these circumstances the present board of 

 trustees abolished the requirement of a financial statement, 

 hoping, by this means, to get a specimen of farm operations 

 worthy of record for the public benefit. 



The question here suggests itself. What is the object to be 

 attained through the offer of premiums by agricultural societies ? 

 The Commonwealth gives to each of the various agricultural 

 societies within its limits a sum not exceeding six hundred dol- 

 lars annually, to be offered in premiums for various objects. 

 Why is this done, and what is to be gained by it ? In general 

 terms, we may say that it is given for the promotion of agricul- 

 ture and the mechanic arts, by the collection and diffusion of 

 agricultural and mechanical information. The Worcester North 

 Society, receiving six hundred dollars of this bounty, evidently 

 has a duty to perform. It ought to show to the State that its 

 money has been well expended, and has elicited its quota of 

 information. This can only be shown in its public record or 

 printed report. If a society makes no report, the inference is 

 that it has nothing worth saying, and it becomes a question 

 whetlier or not it deserves its bounty. If the report is a bare 

 statement of the awards, it has no value except to the directly 

 interested parties. This meagerness of the annual report, or 

 the entire want of it, may be in part the fault of the society as 

 such, but is more likely to be due to the failure of the different 

 committees. 



Each committee has intrusted to it a portion of the State's 

 bounty to be awarded to deserving competitors, and is to that 

 extent responsible to the society for its expenditure. We think 

 it the duty of every committee, where the case will admit of it, 

 to give a reason for their decision. Of what value is it to the 

 community to know that Mr. Smith's cow received the first 

 premium ? What is gained by the decision ? Mr. Smith gets 

 the money, and the committee gain what information they can, 

 by seeing the animal and hearing Smith's statement. Now, if 

 the members of the committee are to be the only gainers in the 

 way of knowledge, it would be best to make our committees 

 very much larger than we do. We look upon the committees 

 rather as almoners of the State's bounty on the one hand, and 

 Smith's experience on the other. If they award money or other 

 property, they should be able to, and should, show for just what 



