44 Reports of Committees. 



Wrought Horse Shoes, R. B. Dickey of Lanesboro, $2,00 



RorseShoes, M. Montvffle, Pittsfield, 2,00 



Hay, Manure and Spading Forks, H. C. Carson, Hinsdale, 2,00 



Hind Thrashing an I Sawing Machine, IX D. Kendall, Lenox, 1 ,<•<• 



Chronometer balance improYed Watch Work, T. S. Heath, Stockbridge, .... . 3,00 



Household Goods, J. W. Grant, Pittsfield s 3,00 



C image Harness, W. F. Gale, West Stockbridge 3,00 



Two illuminating Stoves, manufactured by the TreadweU Stove Co., Albany, 



X. Y.. Chas. B. Redfield, Pittstield, 4,00 



There being a very large number of articles entered, and the money given us so 

 limited, we were under the necessity of making our awards very small. 



Justus Tower, Chair man. 



PEDIGREES, 



For the first time in the annals of the Berkshire Agricultural Society a Committee 

 on Pedigree has been appointed and has performed its duties, and the importance of 

 such au innovation demands more than a passing consideration. 



" What is a Pedigree?" is the first natural enquiry of the uninitiated. We can 

 only say that it is an account or register of a line of ancestors, human or otherwise. 

 Its value among stock breeders consists in the evidence which it brings that the ani- 

 mal isdescended trom a line, all the individuals of which were alike and excellent of 

 their kind, and so almost sure to transmit like excellencies to its progeny. Pedigree 

 is especially valuable " in proportion as it shows an animal to be descended, not only 

 from such as are purely of its own race or breed, but also from such individuals in 

 thai breed as were specially noted for the excellencies for which that particular 

 breed is esteemed." Every animal, of course, has a hereditary history, but it is 

 only certain races or breeds which have been kept distinct for numbers of years 

 whose pedigree is valuable, the others having so intermixed that it would be impossi- 

 ble to furnish a record of their ancestry. Pedigree of horses, anil bulls, and cows, 

 as well as of the human race were kept in families long previous to any regular herd 

 book, ihe first English herd book of short-horn stock being published in 1S'22, and 

 the first American in 1846, and now we have also regular published records of the 

 Devons, Jerseys and Ayrshires, to which will soon be added that of the Hoisteins. 

 Any pedigree committee must be guided and controlled by the herd books as to those 

 breeds whose history they purport to record, and as to others by such written or oral 

 evidence as can be furnished by the owners, and it is, therefore, of primary impor- 

 tance that every owner of a pure bred animal should have its birth and lineage 

 recorded in the proper herd book. This adds to the " money value" of all thorough- 

 bred stock as the first enquiry of a purchaser of it or its progeny, is as to its record, 

 jast as a purchaser of real estate expects to find its title in the books of the Register, 

 and if the documents are not recorded, a just suspicion attaches to the purity of the 

 lineage or title. Every one is aware of the fact that all animals derive from 

 their parents certain permanent and inalienable characteristics — that as a general 

 proposition . and though certain great naturalists have disputed 



the absolute fixity of species, contending that new species may arise by accidental 

 variation and " natural selection," yet we have no direct evidence of this taking 

 place, and on (he contrary the experience of the past is pretty conclusive that parents 



