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value, your committee has tried to perform the duties assigned 

 them, awarding the premiums for heifer calves to Mrs. C. A. Hyde 

 and L. S. Morse, for bull calf to L. W. West, and for steer calves 

 to H. C. Comins, L. W. West, and Rufus Fitch. These young 

 animals combined superior show condition with the more essen- 

 tial qualities of shape, breeding, and the promise of future use- 

 fulness. But your committee wish to add that the calves exhi- 

 bited by J. W.' Allen, C. S. Smith, W. A. Magill and W. Cowen, 

 were all very superior animals and little, if any, in actual merit 

 or value, behind their sleeker and therefore more successful com- 

 petitors. 



The calves were of various grades, usually one-half to seven- 

 eighths Jersey, the other part of their blood being derived from 

 Ayrshire, Shorthorn, Hereford and Holstein sires. The result of 

 this mixture appears to be a healthy, hardy animal of medium 

 size, good shape, a hearty appetite and vigorous digestion, and 

 with the energy and activity requisite to obtain in ordinary pas- 

 tures the materials for a large yield of milk of more than average 

 quality for butter making. 



As an example of the methods of breeding generally adopted 

 in this neighborhood, and their results, I may mention the prac- 

 tice of my neighbor, Mr. W, C. Owen, Vice President of this 

 society. In the past two years he has used successfully Ayrshire, 

 Shorthorn, Jersey and Guernsey bulls from herds of established 

 reputation, and has now a herd of very useful and good-looking 

 cows. His heifers at two years old, will make a pound and a 

 half of butter a day, and can be readily sold to a cow jobber for 

 $50 each. 



It will probably be remarked that I have presented some pret- 

 ty strong arguments for the continued use of thoroughbred bulls. 

 But he is an unwise as well as an ungenerous advocate who 

 affects to ignore or undervalue the evident merit of his opponents 

 case. The practical excellence of the young animals exhibited 

 at the Fair, and the others to which I have alluded, and their 

 special adaptation to the uses and conditions of the farmers of 

 this section, have doubtless been produced by a skillful or fortu- 

 nate blending of the qualities inherent in the different breeds : 

 but this excellence and special adaptation, having been attained. 



