SECRETARY'S REPORT. 23 



Wc recommend that a committee be charged with siicli 

 supervision in this matter as may properly be exercised by this 

 Board ; and tiuit said committee be instructed to use their 

 influence to procure an early appointment to fill any vacancy in 

 that board which may at any time occur. 



P. Stedman, for the Committee. 



In the year 1859, the State Board of Agriculture caused the 

 offer of premiums by the various agricultural societies for the 

 best conducted experiments on the application of manures, 

 each experiment to extend over a period of three years. 



To secure a greater degree of attention to this important 

 design, the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture 

 not only offered large and liberal premiums on the basis required 

 by the Board, but opened the competition to those who entered 

 their experiments for the awards offered by the county societies 

 thus holding out very strong inducements to effort throughout 

 the State. 



A new series has been begun each year since the programme 

 was first instituted, but only the first series thus begun in 1860 

 has been completed. The importance of these experiments 

 can hardly be understood and fully appreciated till several 

 series are concluded, forming with those begun in 1860, an 

 accumulation of results, each adding to the value of all the 

 others. 



At the annual meeting in January, 1863, the committee of 

 the Board having this subject in charge, submitted the following 



REPORT. 



By a reference to the report of the committee on manures, 

 made in 1859, it will be seen that on the 5th day of December, 

 in that year, the Board of Agriculture directed the issue of the 

 following circular to all the agricultural societies receiving the 

 bounty of the Commonwealth. 



Agricultural Department, Boston, ) 

 December 5, 1859. ) 

 Dear Sir, — At a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, held on 

 the 1st inst., it was 



" Voted, That the several Agricultural Societies receiving the bounty 

 of the State, be required to offer three premiums for the most thorough 

 exact and reliable experiments upon the proper depth of applying 

 manures, payable in the fall of 1862, as follows : — 



