YJi BOARD OF AQRICULTURE. 



burg, and European and North American railroads, been furnished 

 free transportation for this purpose — that provision of the statute 

 requiring one session of the Board annually to be held at or near 

 the State College being held to be complied with, if the students 

 can attend such meeting in any part of the State free of expense 

 to them. The students were in attendance during the entire ses- 

 sion, and under the command of Capt. W. S. Chaplin, the Military 

 Instructor at the College, won generous applause from all who 

 saw them, for their fine military discipline and gentlemanly bear- 

 ing. The sessions of the Board were held in the Methodist 

 Church, and were very largely attended. 



On assembling, a most cordial address of welcome was extended 

 to the Board, in behalf of the West Oxford Agricultural Society, 

 and the citizens of Fryeburg, by Hon. George B. Barrows. Some 

 of the interesting facts connected with the Indian occupation, and 

 with the settlement of the place, were detailed, and the members 

 were informed that some four-fifths of the cultivated land in the 

 town consists of the rich intervales that line the winding course 

 of the Saco ; that besides these there are four or five thousand 

 acres of low meadow land, and that the balance of the area is 

 made up of pine plain not valuable for cultivation, but producing 

 wiish great rapidity successive growths of white and Norway pine 

 lumber, and that the especial lack of the farmers was in a defi- 

 ciency of pasturage, there being little or no good grazing land 

 within the town limits. The farmers of Oxford had looked forward 

 to this meeting of the Board with anticipations of pleasure and 

 the expectation of receiving profitable counsel which should assist 

 them in developing their resources. The speaker referred with 

 gratification to the recollection of his own pleasant association 

 with the Board in former years. This was responded to by the 

 President of the Board, and the remainder of the forenoon was 

 given up to a general discussioft on practical matters, which 

 proved very interesting and instructive. It was participated iu 

 by Hon. Geo. B. Barrows, Col. James Walker, Mr. C. W. Water- 

 house, and others of Fryeburg, besides several members of the 

 Board. Mr. Waterhouse gave some of his personal experiences in 

 farming, which contain so much that is practical and useful, es- 

 pecially concerning the use of lime on his land, that I give from 

 the reporter's notes some account of the same. 



Mr. Waterhouse said : I began last year to plow in June and 

 seed in the fall. I had excellent success — got the best catch of 



