20 



THIRD DIVISION. 



Entries : — Two-year-old Steers, 1 ; Yearling Steers, 4 ; Yearling Heifers, 7. 

 Your Committee award premiums as follows : 



For a fine pair Two-year old Steers, John B. Chadwick, Great Barrington, 

 Best pair Yearling Steers, John B. Chadwick, Great Barrington, 



2d do., F. K. Hinckley, Lee, 



3d do., William P. Turner, Great Barrington, 

 Best Yearling Heifer, Frederick Abbey, Great Barrington, 



2d do., A. C. Butler, Lenox, 

 Good Yearling Heifer, Dr. J. L. Miller, Sheffield, 

 Yearling Heifer, equally good, Orren Curtiss, Sheffield, 



Charles S. Platt, 

 Theodore S. Baldwin, 

 W. C Langdox, 



FOURTH DIVISION. 



Entries : — Milch Cows, 14 ; Fat Cows, £. 



The Committee on Milch Cows have attended to their duties and submit the 

 following report. A minority of your committee have had the privilege of as- 

 sisting in awarding premiums on milch cows three times, and as the adage runs, 

 "three times and out," this may prove to be our valedictory report. We would 

 therefore in retiring to make room for others, congratulate the society upon 

 the improvement which has been made in milch cows, since we became members 

 of it, for we have never examined so many good cows as were upon exhibition 

 at the show. It is our purpose to be brief and comprehend much in 

 few words, and we hope to be pardoned if we become too enthusiastic while 

 presenting the noble characteristics of the cow T , or too angry while we contem- 

 plate the treatment she too often receives at the hands of her owner. In all ages 

 of the w T orld the cow has ever been the true friend of man. Her attachment 

 to him is no better told by the story of the old Black Cow of Sweden, than 

 it is by the native cows of America. Her benevolence is beautifully illustrated 

 by the straying Jersey, that rewarded the stranger who kindly took her in, with 

 nineteen pounds of butter a w T eek during her lonely stay. The cow in point of 

 practical utility occupies an important place among the domestic animals. The 

 patient Ox after having been raised up through his steerhood and become oxified, 

 goes hawing and geeiug at the bidding of its driver, and is a faithful co-laborer 

 with him in seed time and harvest, and when the harvest is past and the summer 

 is ended, furnishes nutritious food. The hog, (nits, drinks, grunts and gets fat, 

 and when slaughtered furnishes pork without the beans, ham without the eggs, 

 which compensates in part, or wholly for what his living has cost. The horse 

 shares with its rider the toil of the farm, takes him to mill and to meeting, to 

 store and to market, and when life's labors are over, is only fit for the compost 

 heap. But how is it with the cow ] Maturing as she does in early life, and 

 paying with her progeny a portion of the cost of her raising, she thus becomes 

 a semi-daily producer of food, valuable, as it is drawn pure from the udder, and 

 no less valuable when manufactured into butter rnd cheese. The rich man's 

 cow T is to him a positive treasure. The poor man's i^ comparatively a better 

 treasure, but the widow's cow is to her snperlativly the best treasure, an 1 when- 

 ever we learn that the poor man's or the widow's cow has been cruelly treated, 

 or illegally encroached upon, we feel that the trespasser's manhood was developed 

 under the influence of sour milk, and not under the pure milk of human kind- 

 ness. The introduction of the mowing machine created a demand for smooth 

 meadows; the building of cheese factories and the running of milk trains upon 

 the railroads created a demand for milk, whether the price w r as five cents or only 

 two per quart — the cry was more milk. A very important question now arises 

 and requires a studied answer $ we venture an answer. By breeding from milk- 



