162 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the reach of all, is so widely distributed that good grades are 

 easily obtained, and if there is a limit to the improvement that 

 may be thus effected, it has not yet been reached. Much has 

 already been done, but even more remains to do, and successful 

 experiments in judicious crossings will amply repay all who 

 make them. This is the way, and the only way, we shall ever 

 obtain a stock suited to the wants and conditions of our farms, 

 and every farmer who can, should do his part toward it. 



The Committee to award the herd premiums, met and re- 

 ceived the statements of the competitors on the first day of the 

 exhibition. Proceeding to the pens, they found two herds of 

 Jerseys, one belonging to Francis B. Hayes, of Lexington, the 

 other to N. Foster, Jr., of Belmont; one herd of Ayrshires, the 

 property of George M. Barrett, of Concord, and two herds of 

 natives and grades, one owned by Mr. Barrett, the other by 

 Webster Smith, of Lexington. 



Mr. Hayes's herd had previously taken the first premium, 

 and were entered only for exhibition. They are very superior 

 animals, and fine specimens of the breed. The more recent im- 

 portations would seem to indicate that we can breed Jerseys 

 here as well as in the Channel Islands, or at least that the later 

 importations are not improvements on the earlier. Certainly 

 the portion of this herd bred here, would be preferred to the 

 new arrivals, and as this has become so common, it tends to 

 show that we are really improving the breed, and adapting it to 

 our condition and wants. 



The herd of Mr. Foster were finely marked, and evidently 

 carefully and judiciously bred. The old cow, " Buttercup, No. 

 4," has been one of the best Jerseys in this county, and Mr. 

 Foster, in securing such an animal, has laid the foundation for 

 a herd that will have great excellence. The younger animals 

 show the results of good breeding, and the promise of becoming 

 even better stock than their progenitors. Although his state- 

 ments were deficient in some of the particulars required in this 

 class, there were so many good points about the herd, and it was 

 so evidently within the design and object of the society's pre- 

 miums, of which more will be said farther on, that the Com- 

 mittee had no hesitation in awarding him the premium. 



Of the Ayrshire herd, we need only say that it fully kept up 

 the reputation of Mr. Barrett as a breeder, and would have de- 



