STOCK. 167 



question, we believe they offer premiums for the purpose of en- 

 couraging the public to breed and raise the best stock and crops, 

 and to elicit all information beneficial to agriculture. The State 

 bestows upon this society six hundred dollars yearly, and it is 

 evident that we, as a society, are under an obligation to the 

 State for its bounty. We should show to the State that its 

 money has been judiciously offered and paid in premiums, and 

 that it has elicited information of much value to agriculture ; 

 and this can be shown only by our printed Transactions. If 

 our Transactions contain only the awards of premiums, they 

 are of no consequence to any one except those interested as 

 competitors. This leanness of the reports of the different com- 

 mittees is not wholly the fault of the society ; perhaps it is more 

 the fault of the committees themselves. Each committee has a 

 portion of the State's bounty to award, and should give the 

 reasons for their decisions, in every instance, where the case will 

 admit of it ; for of what value is it to the community to know 

 that B's animal or article took the first premium, and C's the 

 second ? 



The second question, we believe, must be answered in the 

 negative. The society requires the competing animals to be on 

 the ground, ostensibly that the public may view them ; but, at 

 the same time, it requires nothing of their owners except to tell 

 who their cows' ancestors were. If an exhibition of " thorough- 

 bred dairy cows " is worth anything, its value lies in its power 

 to instruct those who witness it. Now, so far as imparting any 

 information to the public is concerned, the public might as well 

 have looked at pictures as at the cows. 



But at whose door does the fault lie ? Not the competitors', 

 (as they answered all the requirements,) but the society's. A 

 cow that would not give milk enough to keep her calf in good 

 growing condition, might, if her pedigree could be traced back 

 to some very popular animals in their day, in the kingdom of 

 Great Britain, get the preference over another nearly as perfect, 

 and very much superior in point of dairy qualities. If a dairy 

 cow has any value as such, she should not put forward her ped- 

 igree as the only answer, when we ask what quantity of milk 

 she gives, or how much butter or cheese she can produce. Now 

 to obviate these objections, we would suggest to the trustees to 

 require competitors to make a trial of their cows, at a time to 



