74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ral skill for its development, and has enriched those who have 

 pursued it with wisdom and judgment. 



" The farmer has no aids and incentives to lahor equal to his 

 cattle — aids, as fellow-laborers and manufacturers of the best 

 fertilizers for his lands — incentives, as indicating by their good 

 condition, that the farm which they are at all times ready to 

 serve, is well managed. 



" It is, therefore, of the highest importance that they should 

 not only be properly fed and protected, but that they should be 

 selected with care and judgment. 



" It is none but good animals that pay for keeping, and they 

 pay for good keeping." P. Stedman. 



Moses Stebbins. 

 Abel F. Adams. 



PREPARATION OF LANDS FOR CROPS. 



Mr. Clement, from the Committee on the Preparation of Land 

 for Crops, with special reference to Drainage, presented the 

 following 



REPORT: 



Persons who have been accustomed to visit district schools 

 on examination days are never surprised to hear the multipli- 

 cation table recited, even though it had been reiterated in their 

 ears fifty times in the ten years next preceding the last visit. 

 The same of other recitations, and for obvious reasons. Some 

 are leaving and others entering the school-room for the first 

 time at every term, rendering the same routine necessary from 

 year to year. 



Now, notwithstanding the discussions ■^hich have been car- 

 ried on, both oral and written, in relation to the beneficial 

 effects of draining soils, and the large number whose intelli- 

 gence has been manifested in reducing their theories to' prac- 

 tice, it is fair to presume that others are about entering the 

 school of agriculture, and will have to learn what others have 

 learned and practiced before. That fact alone must serve as 

 an apology for writing what follows. 



Of the advantages to be derived by draining bogs and 

 swamps, I must ask permission to remark that what I have to 



