180 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



WORCESTER NORTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The writer has been lead to inquire, in view of the exhibition 

 just closed, if the offer of premiums for milch kine accomplishes 

 all that is intended or desired ? Tlie competing animals are 

 required to be upon the ground ostensibly that the public may 

 have the benefit of an examination ; but no one knows, from 

 first to last, except the Committee and a few anxiously in- 

 quiring competitors, which of the many present are superior, 

 or what their good points may be, so far as the opinion of the 

 judges is concerned. The peculiar value of a milch cow is 

 made manifest in and through the milk-pail. This record 

 can only be known when the published report and statements 

 are distributed, some three months subsequent to the exhibition. 

 That portion of the public which is interested in such matters 

 has no opportunity at that time to make any comparisons, and 

 has so far lost definite recollection of the subject that the advan- 

 tages which the exhibition might and ought to have furnished 

 have come to be of comparatively little importance. 



If an exhibition of this sort is worth anything, its value is to 

 be found mainly in its power to educate the people who attend. 

 The young dairy farmer, more particularly, visits the exhibition 

 to see the best cows, learn what they have done, and to make 

 such comparisons between the best and inferior ones as will 

 enable him more successfully to select, for rearing or purchase, 

 a class of animals that will be likely to give improved results. 

 If, however, the record is not to be found, and the judgment 

 of the Committee cannot be ascertained, the whole affair has 

 for him little more value than a painting or a collection of 

 photographs of the animals. 



To obviate these objections, I venture to suggest the propriety 

 of posting the statements, or copies of tliem, in connection with 

 the descriptive cards, and that the judges be instructed to desig- 

 nate in some manner the prize animals as soon as the awards 

 are completed. 



Tiic question was asked by a number of different people, 

 committee-men and others, why grade cows should be com- 

 pelled to furnish a record of their doings, while any and all 

 of thoroughbreds were required to show only who their ances- 



