228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



if they don't bite them off they pull them off, and I think that 

 is just as effectual. I know those bushes are disappearing, 

 and that is the way I manage them. You cannot all have three 

 or four hundred boys, I know, to do this work, but that is 

 the way I have utilized them. And it is good for the boys, 

 because it is teachiug them to work, and it is exercise for 

 them. And if, after they graduate from our college, they do 

 not want to pull brakes, they have learned to work, and they 

 can do something else. 



Mr. Hubbard. I want to say just a word, because I know 

 something about the land of which the Doctor has spoken, 

 and there is a little more that I want him to say in this con- 

 nection. I should like to know whether it was profitable to 

 make the attempt to clear that land ; whether it is profitable 

 for fiirmers to expend their energies upon such laud as upon 

 land from which they can get greater returns. 



Dr. Wakefield. I cannot say whether it would be profit- 

 able for anybody else, but I am sure it was profitable for the 

 State ; for the boys, when they did this work, would have 

 been doing nothing, and the men worked at it when it was 

 not necessary for them to be employed in anything else. All 

 I can say is, that I am satisfied I can show you that that farm 

 has been managed, on the whole, so that there has been a 

 profit of thousands of dollars. 



President Clark. I came here at the beginning of this 

 meeting with the intention of staying through, and with the 

 full expectation that I should learn enough to pay me for 

 having come, and I believe I have. I have been very much 

 interested in what I have heard, and some of it, I think, will 

 do me good in years to come. I do not live in Barre, but in 

 a very different country, and I should like very much to hear 

 the experience of some of the Barre farmers in regard to this 

 matter. They are specially interested in it ; they have un- 

 doubtedly carefully thought over it, and had a great deal of 

 experience ; and as I am not acquainted with a great many, 

 I propose to call for one in particular whom I know to be a 

 clear-headed, sensible man, — at least he was in his youth 

 when he was down in Boston in the legislature. I would like 

 to hear Mr. Holland's views on the subject. 



Mr. Holland. Perhaps I cannot do better than to say 



