DUTIES OF AN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 9 



eration which has been shown careful breeders of our most 

 valuable farm animals and the attention which has been aroused 

 by the published essays of the society, I cannot but look with 

 pride upon an association which seems blessed with perpetual 

 youth, tempered with the wisdom and judgment of mature 

 manhood. An agricultural society which has discriminated 

 between the different uses of the animal kingdom, deserves all 

 praise. It has a due regard for all the interests which come 

 under its cognizance. One of its great objects is the encour- 

 agement of breeding valuable animals for the profit of the 

 farmer and for the advantage of the community, whether it be 

 for the dairy, for draught, or for driving. In all this, it is 

 observant of the most important interests submitted to it, and 

 is as truly progressive in its recognition of all classes of animals 

 as it is in the reward it offers the various branches of farming. 

 It is the legitimate use of animals, and the legitimate growth 

 of crops with which it is concerned. Our society offers liberal 

 premiums for bulls — does it follow that we must have a bull- 

 fight at every annual exhibition ? We all value the horse and 

 have encouraged the breeding of this important animal with 

 ample rewards ; will the most intelligent judges among us say 

 that they require the trials of the track, in order to make up 

 their decisions ? All these things have their place, but it is not 

 exactly at a farmers' exhibition. Not that I would have our 

 society discontinue the liberal encouragement it has always 

 extended to the development of the American trotting horse, 

 than which no animal is wiser, more enduring and patient, 

 more courageous, nor more defiant of all obstacles. Let us, as 

 a society, encourage still the attention our farmers are giving 

 those useful animals, and if any man doubts the benefit to be 

 derived from it, let him witness the extraordinary success one 

 of our own Essex farmers has met with by the exercise of that 

 judgment and skill which have enabled him to produce a 

 Childers, and to fill his stables with a collection of colts une- 

 qualled as a whole, from which one yearling animal has been 

 sold at a price greater than was ever before obtained in New 

 England. Let us do this, and I think we shall bo progressive 

 enough for the most ardent lover of horse flesh in the country ; 

 let us continue the encouragement we have always offered the 



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