24 



3d do., Geo. Cobb, West Stockbridge, 3 00 



4th do., Chester Burrows, Sandisfield, 2 00 



We consider the exhibition of four-years-old Horses very slim. 



Wellington Smith, ) 

 Ezra Best, > Committee. 



James Dewell, ) 



POULTRY. 



The show of fowls was very large. More than eighty coops were on exhi- 

 bition. If we judge by the rush of men, women and children, to see the poul- 

 try, there is no more interesting feature of your fair than this. Your Commit- 

 tee did its work as well as circumstances would permit ; no little difficulty 

 being experienced from the crowd that continually occupied the open space, 

 and the general disorder that obtained in the arrangement of the coops. The 

 varieties (about thirty,) were as thoroughly mixed up as if heterogeneity had 

 been the design. Consequently the entire ground occupied had to be traveled 

 over some scores of times, making the task of the committee very tiresome and 

 undesirable. After seeing the medley of coops, good and poor, small and 

 great, from a starch box, up, it was suggested to as that the agricultural society 

 could well afford to construct a suitable building for the exhibition of fowls. 

 With such an arrangement, no one could object to leaving his fowls on the 

 ground through the entire fair, for both convenience and safety would be se- 

 cured. Let the building be constructed with a hall, and three stories of apart- 

 ments on either side, and of sufficient length to accommodate all the fowls on 

 exhibition, and the apartments distinctly marked, so as to indicate the different 

 grades and varieties. 



Another suggestion is in reference to the committees appointed. Instead of 

 the inevitable committee of three, to pass judgment on the whole, we 

 would suggest that individuals be appointed to judge certain varieties; 

 said individuals having bred the varieties they are to judge. The best 

 authorities have decided that no one man is competent to judge more than 

 two or three varieties, at the most. With the poultry house, the fowls 

 classified, and the competent judges, we shall secure a finer show, and 

 be able to overthrow the fraud of entering fowls as thorough- bred, that 

 really have no right to be called breeds. You require that all birds com- 

 peting for premiums shall be pure blood. If your committee had judged 

 literally according to this standard, very many of the competitors would have 

 gone home without premiums. To produce fine fowls requires study, care and 

 skill, and they must be bred as carefully as fine cattle, sheep or horses. We 

 would also suggest that chicks be exhibited instead of old fowls. Old fowls, 

 in the moulting season are unsightly and unfit for exhibition. Premiums are 

 offered for best trios ; we would say to competitors, bring trios, no more and 

 no less. Several fowls, packed closely in a small coop, show poorly and ap- 

 pear very uncomfortable. We sincerely hope the poultry department of 

 Southern Berkshire's great Fair will grow in interest and excellence, and be- 

 come second to none in all this country. 



The regular Committee chosen on this department were S. R. Free of South- 

 field, Charles H. Willis of Stockbridge and Charles S. Heath of Lee. Of this 

 committee only the chairman reported. After some deliberation Horns 1 !' W. 

 Langdon and Elihu Church were chosen to fill vacancy. About one o'clock 

 p. m. the committee began their work. Eighty coops of Poultry of all kinds 

 and grades, and the coops so arranged as to form an alley about six feet wide 

 and a hundred feet long. Here, in this narrow alley, with scores and hun- 

 dreds of men, women and children pressing their way to and fro, and with 

 fowls mixed up in this perplexing manner, the committee began. The 

 chairman was a small man, and the third man on the committee was a 

 spare man, so it was not so bad for them. But the middle man, Mr. L. , was a 



