SECRETARY'S REPORT. 243 



than the swine then on hand could consume, purchased eleven shoats, 

 for which they paid $139/q'^. For the support of the swine fhere 

 have been fed to them, in addition to the swill from the institution, 

 seventy-six bushels of Indian corn, and one hundred bushels of a 

 mixture of small potatoes, turnips and apples. 



The committee remarked in their report of last year, that they had 

 been unfortunate in the loss of small pigs ; they have since come to 

 the conclusion that the swill, from some cause unknown to them, was 

 unsuitable food for sows in milk, or pigs while weaning, and they 

 adopted the plan of feeding the sows, when suckling, and the pigs 

 when weaning, upon tea made of good English hay steeped in boil- 

 ing Avater ; this has, in a measure, remedied the evil, a less number 

 having been lost since the change of food. 



Of blood stock, the committee have purchased since their last 

 report, one five years old Devon cow, for which they paid seventy- 

 five dollars ; she has a fine heifer calf, six months old, valued at 

 twenty-five dollars ; they also purchased a fine four years old Durham 

 cow, and were negotiating for a beautiful Durham bull, both of which 

 they were obliged to relinquish, for the want of funds to pay for them. 

 The Jersey bull given the Board by the Hon. J. C. Gray, and the 

 Jersey cow, Alice, presented the Board by the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, have now been on the farm two 

 years, have been fed and treated the same as the other stock ; both 

 have done well and have manifested their ability to endure the climate 

 and treatment nearly, if not quite as well, as any stock on the 

 farm. The cow has produced two calves, a bull and a heifer ; the bull 

 unfortunately met with an accident, which made it necessary to dis- 

 pose of him at the low price of thirty dollars ; the heifer is now six 

 months old and is a fine animal, valued at twenty-five dollars. The 

 Hereford cow and heifer purchased last year, both remain on the farm 

 doing well under common treatment, evincing their ability to endure 

 the climate quite as well as native stock. 



The cow dropped in January last a bull calf which now weighs 

 eight hundred and fifty pounds, and for size, beauty and symmetry of 

 form, cannot be surpassed by any animal of his breed and age in the 

 country ; he can be sold any day for three hundred dollars. The 

 committee have purchased within the year three native milch cows, 

 one yoke of oxen, one horse, and sundry farming tools, for all of 

 which the particulars will appear in the Secretary's Report. 



John Brooks. 

 Moses Newell. 



