692 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



intelligence must be the consequence. This mode of viewing 

 crops partakes of the plan of viewing farms entire, so success- 

 fully practised in years past, by the State and some of the 

 County Societies. In the statements thus elicited, will be 

 found a summary of the best specimens of New England 

 farming. Not speculative, but practical, drawn from actual 

 experience. 



The entries of animals in the several departments compared 

 favorably with those reported in former years, presenting ob- 

 jects sufHcient to absorb the premiums offered, but by no 

 means a full representation of the best. Each of these classes 

 will be noticed by the committees intrusted with this service, 

 with more accuracy and discrimination than is in my power 

 to give. Nor would we presume to put our judgment in com- 

 parison with that of these practical men, who have spent their 

 lives in the rearing and management of stock. Those of best 

 experience are, or should be, selected for the discharge of these 

 duties. 



Our attention was particularly arrested by a milch cow, of 

 native breed, that had yielded 188 pounds of butter in 120 

 days, with no other feed than common pasture and four quarts 

 of shorts daily. When native cows of this quality can readily 

 be found, there can be no necessity of importing Diirhams, 

 Ayrshires, or Jerseys, for ordinary dairy purposes. We con- 

 sider a stock of cows good which yield daily through the usual 

 butter-making season, (from May 20th to September 20th,) on 

 good pasture feed only, one pound of butter each. It is rare 

 to find on a farm half a dozen cows that come up to this mark ; — 

 though individual cows may often be found, when full fed, 

 yielding tivo pounds of butter per day. Several such were 

 presented at this show. 



As was to be expected in Berkshire, sheep were present in 

 every form and variety : some thirty or forty parcels, exhibited 

 generally in the vehicles in which they rode\ An examination 

 under such circumstances, required more skill than we pos- 

 sessed, to speak with confidence of their distinguishing .char- 

 acteristics. The committee spoke well of them. 



The competition in the exhibition of horses was truly grati- 

 fying ; for more than an hour the spacious avenue south- 

 westerly of the Common, in Pittsfield, was crowded with a 



