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awarded to Mr. Chase for tlie beautiful Ayrshire heifer Cora 2d. 

 The fourth to IMi-. Edmund Smith of Hadley for a very large grade 

 heifer of singular quality, and the fifth to Mi\ Bates for a yearling 

 Short Horn of surpassing beauty and promise. 



No premiums were offered for heifers over three years old ; but 

 the extraordinary merit of Empress 3d and Yarico Beauty, exhibited 

 by Mr. Judd, induce us to commend them to the Executive Com- 

 mittee, as fit subjects for special premiums. 



Conscious of an honest intention and diligent effort to do justice 

 to all, your committee cannot and do not expect that their awards 

 will give universal satisfaction. They would therefore repeat that 

 the entries were numerous and of unusual merit, that their time 

 was hmited, and that the weather was singularly imfavorable for 

 dehberate examination and critical comparison. They also feel sat- 

 isfied from the personal character of the exhibitors, that aU feehngs 

 of disappointment, if such there should be, wiU be forgotten in 

 hearty pubhc spirited rejoicing that so fine a display of stock should 

 be brought together at Amherst, to attest the skiU and energy of 

 the farmers of Hampshke County. 



In addition to the award of premiums it has become the custom 

 to expect fi'om committees a few remarks pertinent to the matters 

 assigned for their consideration. In trying to perform this part of 

 our duty we may often seem to state our opinions as facts. Such 

 arrogance is quite unintentional; we therefore beg the reader to sup- 

 ply "we think" or "it is our experience," where such quahfications 

 are omitted from a necessary regard to brevity. 



We are often asked "What is the best breed of cows for profit ?" 

 There are good, bad, and aU intermediate quaHties, of all breeds. 

 Still a consideration of the circumstances under which, and the 

 purposes for which, the leading races of cattle have been bred for a 

 longer or shorter time, will materially aid us in deciding whether 

 animals of this or that breed are adapted to our circumstances, and 

 calculated to fulfill the objects we have in view. 



For symmetry of form and beauty the high bred Short Horns are 

 unrivalled. In quahty or the capacity for profitable production of 

 beef and milk, there is a wide difference between individuals and 

 famihes of this breed. The Short Horns appear to have originated 

 from a cross of Dutch bulls on the native cattle of the north of Eng- 

 land. From this mixture, and in the hands of skiUful breeders, who 

 aimed at the improvement of stock for practical purposes, a class of 

 Short Horn cattle was estabhshed about the end of the 18th century 



