4 MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY. 



agricultural societies, which will be of suitable age to put to 

 use in the coming spring. 



" Two heifers, from the imported stock, are now in calf by the 

 imported bulls, which, with their calves, will be delivered to 

 county societies, when they shall have dropped their first 

 calves, and are again in calf by the imported bulls. By this 

 measure, the public will secure the benefit of having four ani- 

 mals of the best and purest blood, from these heifers. 



" The character of the Ayrshire breed of cattle for the dairy, 

 and the North Devon for grazing, for the plough and all the 

 useful purposes of the farm, is too well established to require 

 any further evidence in support of their claims. The sales of 

 their milk, over and above what is necessary for their calves, 

 amount to over two hundred dollars per year. It is sometimes 

 asked, by the advocates for cattle-shows, why the trustees sus- 

 pended their annual shows, and discontinued their offer of pre- 

 miums on crops, and for the best cultivated farms, and devoted 

 their whole income to the improvement of stock? Our long re- 

 peated cattle-shows were degenerating into ' holiday gather- 

 ings,' and tending, in the language of the late Governor 

 Wright, ' to become arbitrary experiments, based on no philo- 

 sophical investigation of cause and effect.' In a country where 

 so large a portion of the farmer's wealth consists in his stock of 

 cattle, and so considerable a share of his income is derived from 

 the produce of the dairy, and beef for the market, it was be- 

 lieved that something might be done by way of improving his 

 stock, which would advance the interests of agriculture more 

 than cattle-shows, and premiums on crops. Suppose the whole 

 number of cattle, owned in the Commonwealth, to be one hun- 

 dred thousand, and by a distribution among them of one hun- 

 dred or more of the pure blood of the best breeds of stock, their 

 value should be increased ten, or even five per cent., would not 

 this be of greater advantage to the farmer, than all that could 

 be derived from the premiums heretofore offered ? The ben- 

 eficial results of crossing the pure blood of the best foreign 

 breeds with our best native stock, is more or less apparent in 

 many parts of our State. In passing through the western coun- 

 ties, and particularly the county of Worcester, the practised 



