SECnETART'S REPORT. 45. 



Below are added several communications which were received in 

 repl J to a circular of inquiries issued and distributed throughout the 

 State last spring, and which, besides affording some additional items 

 of information, may be of interest, as showing the degree of progress 

 made, the prevailing practice, and tenor of feeling on the part of the 

 settlers at the present time : 



Fort Fairfield, November 1, 1857. 



Dear Sir : In answer to some of your inquiries, I would say that the num- 

 ber of farmers in this vicinity has, in my estimation, increased filty per cent, 

 ■withfn five years past. I think the income realized from capital invested in 

 farming operations is twenty per cent. 



Average yield of hay, one and a half tons per acre. The crop can be 

 increased fifty per cent, by plowing and manuring. We seed our grass land 

 •wholly in spring, from 20th April to 1st of Juno. Buckwheat is the best 

 grain to seed with. 



But few full blooded animals have been introduced as yet, although there 

 is a large mixture of English blood in our stock. The Hereford and Durham, 

 principally. 



Average cost of raising a horse to four years old, is about sixty dollars, and 

 the average value at that age is one hundred dollars. The cost of raising 

 neat cattle to four years old, will average about twenty-five dollars, and their 

 value at that age will average about forty dollars. 



The varieties of seed which have succeeded best, are white bearded wheat, 

 Kussia oats, two rowed barley, and rough buckwheat. Our earliest sowing 

 is about 25th of April, on an average of years, and the latest plowing, middle 

 of November. 



We generally feed from winter stores about six months; but as pastures 

 keep good until late in the fiill, and do not dry up in summer, we are not 

 obliged to feed any thing to our stock while at pasture, as is the custom in 

 Massachusetts and other places. 



1 have answered your inquiries as well as circumstances will admit. Our 



country is too new and our system of agriculture too imperfectly developed to 



answer them all fully. 



Yours, &c., 



b. ccmiiixgs. 



Golden Ridge Plantation, } 



(No. 3, 5th Range,) July 10, 1857. S 



Dear Sir: In reply to your circular of inquiries, I send you a few answers, 

 hastily written in the intervals of my daily toil, and trust you will excuse the 

 many imperfections. 



So far as tliis town is concerned, I should say the increase of farmers is about 

 ten per cent., for the last five years, not by imigration, that being about equal 

 to what has gone out, but by natural increase. As for the income which i& 



