76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SEC OND DAY. 



The Board met at 10 o'clock, and Col. Stone, of Dedham, 

 was elected President for the day. 



A lecture was delivered by the Secretary of the Board on 

 " Dairy Farming," with especial reference to the secretory 

 and reproductive organs of the cow. The lecture was illus- 

 trated by carefully prepared diagrams, and apparently gave very 

 great and general satisfaction. 



The discussion of " Dairy Stock" was then opened by 



Dr. LoRiNG. Mr. President and Gentlemen, — I find it an- 

 nounced on the programme, unfortunately for me, that the dis- 

 cussion on Dairy Stock is to be opened this morning by me, at 

 the close of Mr. Flint's lecture. I have listened to this lecture 

 with great pleasure and profit, as you have, and only regret 

 that I am standing in his place. 



I am glad that the subject is announced as it is — not a dis- 

 cussion upon Cattle Husbandry, but upon Dairy Stock. It is 

 a bad thing to give the human mind a wrench, a sudden twist ; 

 it hurts the audience ; it hurts the speaker. He is engaged in 

 bad business. I had a friend once who had but one story, 

 which was about a gun, and wherever he went, he was bound to 

 tell his story. Whether it was a tea-party, a sewing-circle or a 

 conference meeting, it made no difference ; the gun story must 

 come in, somehow or other ; he had nothing else to say. Let 

 there come the slightest lull in the conversation, and out he 

 would break : " Hark ! 1 thought I heard a gun. By the way, 

 speaking of guns, reminds me of a story ; " and then the com- 

 pany got it. The difficulty with my friend's story was, that he 

 never introduced it in the right place. He always wrenched 

 the audience — gave them a sudden twist — and they wished my 

 friend and his story were out of the way. I am fortunate in 

 being able, under the programme, to follow in the train of 

 argument pursued by Mr. Flint. 



Dairy stock ! I suspect the mind of every man in this audi- 

 ence is filled with ideas of dairy stock by this time — the pla- 

 centa, the uterus, the ovaries, the udder, the teats, and the way 

 to get the teats open when they are too tight — and all that ; we 

 are saturated with the fundamental principles of dairy stock. 

 So I can keep right on in that channel with perfect propriety, 



