H BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



seventy-five per cent, realized on native fowls. Poultry and 

 eggs, pork, and Indian corn are among the best, if not the very 

 best products of the farm. Poultry needs more extended re- 

 marks. In the first place, select natives, crossed slightly with 

 the imported game ; let your chickens be hatched in the month 

 of May, feed with dough made of Indian meal, till large enough 

 to eat corn whole, then feed entirely on corn the remainder of 

 the year. Select your best chickens to keep, the remainder 

 dispose of early. Keep your fowls laying for the remainder of 

 the year and it will be found profitable." 



Farm Laboe. 



An effort has been made to ascertain the relative proportion 

 of native and foreign laborers upon the farms of this State. 

 The customs vary so much in different sections that it is diffi- 

 cult to arrive at an accurate estimate. A large majority of the 

 returns made during the past season, show that intelligent 

 labor, throughout the State, is not only greatly preferred, but 

 commands a higher price than ignorant labor ; that an ability 

 to work with the head as well as the hand, is appreciated 

 and sought for. 



No better idea of the practices in the different sections can 

 be given, than by the extracts which follow. It will be seen 

 tliat in the eastern part of the State, foreign hired labor is 

 most common, and that it is employed to a limited extent, in 

 the western. An intelligent farmer of Berkshire says : — ''But 

 few farmers employ foreigners. I know of but one employed 

 in that business, they mostly preferring manufacturing places. 

 The native youngsters are preferred, and have obtained the past 

 season from $13 to $1G per month. At least two dollars per 

 month less, is what the foreigner has obtained." 



Another, in the same county, says: — "More native than 

 foreign labor is employed, at prices varying from $8 to |12 per 

 month." 



In a few towns of that county, however, more especially in 

 the central part, foreign labor is more common. One writes 

 thus : — " Of hired labor, three-fourths are foreigners, at an 

 average price of $13 per month, for six months ; |l per day for 

 haying, or, $150 for the year. Natives command $1.25 per day 



