98 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



that the Ayrshire is the best cow for this county, it will not be 

 easy for him to award the fiiist premium to a Jersey heifer, how- 

 ever promising she may be. We will not attempt to say how 

 the offers of premiums for heifers should be changed, but we 

 think the duty of the committee would be much more pleasant 

 to themselves, and satisfactory to the public, if they were only 

 to decide which is the best animal of a particular breed, instead 

 of saying which is the best of all the different breeds exhibited. 



Here the question naturally arises, how far the society should 

 direct its efforts and funds to the encouragement of raising our 

 dairy stock ? If it can be shown that we can buy our milch 

 cows cheaper than we can raise them, this fact alone does not 

 prove that it would not be better for the community for us to 

 give more attention to stock-raising. Tlie inqu.iry should not 

 be, which will at first give us the most dollars, but which will 

 have the best influence upon our family ? The boy who regu- 

 larly feeds and cares for his pet calf is acquiring those habits of 

 attention to the wants of our domestic animals, which he can 

 not so well learn in any other way. Those habits of care and 

 regularity will fit him to discharge better the duties of life. The 

 fact that so many of the leading men in all our cities came from 

 those districts where stock-raising formed a large part of the 

 business, shows that the raising of calves has a tendency to 

 elevate men, or to prepare them for a high position. Where all 

 the stock is raised upon the farm there is a kind of mutual 

 attachment existing between the family and the animals that is 

 not found where the stock is bought. The boy upon a farm 

 where stock is raised has an opportunity to learn how to judge 

 of the age of an animal, better than he can where there is an 

 imcertainty aljout their ages. 



We often hear the remark made, that most of the boys are 

 leaving the farm for some other occupation. We think that 

 moi:c attention to stock-raising will have a tendency to attach 

 them more strongly to their homes. 



William R. PuTNAM,/or the Committee. 



HAMPDEN. • 



From the Report of the Committee. 

 We think gentleness and docility invaluable in regard to this 

 class of animals, and that these qualities are promoted by keei> 



