44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



suggestion or otherwise, to any towns by which this proposition shall 

 be adopted, and to furnish to such committees having charge of the 

 mattsr, the results of the experiments made on the State Farm at 

 Westborough, as reported from year to year by the Board of Agricul- 

 ture for distribution over the State ; and I hereby request the select- 

 men of all towns where this course shall be pursued, or the commit- 

 tees so appointed, to notify me of the fact, when the reports of the 

 Board of Agriculture will be forwarded to them. 

 Very cordially and truly. 



Your obedient servant, 



CHARLES L. FLINT, 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. 



To the Selectmen of the Town of . 



It was also voted, that the Secretary be requested to invite 

 such farmers in this Commonwealth as he may think proper, to 

 furnish to this Board some information in regard to their 

 method of feeding milch cows, stating, as far as may be, their 

 age and weight, the expense of keeping, and the yield of milk 

 for a given time ; and also their method of feeding working 

 oxen, the expense of the same, together with their weight, and 

 the nature and extent of their work at the time ; and the same 

 with regard to horses. The difficulties attending experiments 

 in feeding stock are greater than those in manures, for the 

 reason that the modifying circumstances, and the conditions of 

 the animal, vary, from causes not so fully understood ; and 

 researches in this direction, intricate as they are, require the 

 utmost caution and the strictest care ; and without it, they are 

 comparatively worthless. Practical experiment, may, indeed, 

 arrive at the comparative value of various articles of food, but 

 it is of greater importance to settle a thousand other questions 

 in the animal economy, such as the food best adapted for ani- 

 mals kept for specific purposes, like the production of milk, or 

 labor, or beef; and the investigation involves a range of inqui- 

 ries almost unlimited, and certainly beyond the means or the 

 power of any individual effort. Associated eifort, it is hoped, 

 may do much, and the government should continue its exer- 

 tions, as it proposes to do, till they result in something of per- 

 manent value to the farmer. 



At the same meeting it was voted, that Messrs. French, 



