66 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The State Board of Agriculture held a session 

 at the State House on Wednesday, Thursday 

 and Friday, the 3d, 4th and 5th of January. 

 Every part of the State was represented, and the 

 reports of the several committees were presented, 

 discussed and referred. They show the improve- 

 ments commenced, completed and anticipated. 

 Among those completed are a building for the 

 accommodation of the numerous small tools used 

 by the boys, such as forks, rakes, hoes, shovels, 

 &c. ; a room for blacksmithing, one for deposit- 

 ing carts, sleds and large farming utensils, one 

 devoted to corn-cribs, and for shelling of sufficient 

 capacity to contain two thousand bushels, a car- 

 riage room, carpenter's shop, and a room for J)re- 

 serving and storing seeds. Another building has 

 been completed sufficiently large to give one hun- 

 dred swine ample yards, feeding and sleeping 

 rooms ; overhead is a large room for storing bed- 

 ding or litter, and for keeping apples, pumpkins, 

 small potatoes, or any of the early perishable ar- 

 ticles which make up a considerable portion of 

 the provender for swine in the autumnal months. 

 This building is accommodated with capacious 

 cisterns for receiving swill from the family of 

 nearly six hundred at the Reform School, and for 

 steaming vegetables or grain if thought desirable. 

 In the front part of this building is a commodi- 

 ous slaughter-house, with a well and pump, and 

 such conveniences as are necessary where slaugh- 

 tering is required as often as once a week. The 

 work is all done in a plain but substantial man- 

 ner, and the building affijrds such facilities for 

 swine-breeding and raising as have enabled the 

 Board to find a profit of some $200 in the course 

 of nine months in this department of the farm. 

 New and sul^stantial stone walls have been erec- 

 ted, drains made, and various expedients devised 

 for the increase and preservation of manures. 



The amount of produce sold from the farm 

 during the year amounts to four thousand seven 

 hundred and seven dollars and thirty-eight cents, 

 and the amount of labor done on the f\irm for 

 permanent improvements and for labor done for 

 the Reform Scliool amounts to one thousand eight 

 hundred and thirty-six dollars. 



The operations of' the Board have been limited 

 and impeded by the want of proper buildings to 

 board the workmen, and suitable Ijuildings must 

 either be purchased or erected for this purpose. 

 The farm now lies mostly on one side of the 

 buildings, and the Board propose to ask the Leg- 

 islature to purchase certain contiguous lands and 

 buildings, all conveniently located, to obviate the 

 present existing difficulties. If this request is 

 granted, it will afford pasturage and mowing so 

 aa to double the number of cows now kept. Dur- 

 ing the last year, pastures have been hired, and 



large amounts of grass purchased and cured in or- 

 der to increase the cows so as to furnish the supply 

 of milk demanded at the School. But with this 

 extraneous help this demand has not yet been sup- 

 plied. More land and more buildings are needed 

 before the business of the farm can be successfully 

 prosecuted. 



At the meeting of the Board of Agriculture on 

 Thursday morning, Gov. Washburn was present, 

 and presided until he was called away to attend 

 to other duties at the Council Chamber. He 

 said — 



" Before leaving the Chair, as it was probably 

 the last time he should have the honor to meet 

 with them in that capacity, he would say a few 

 words at parting. He should be doing injustice to 

 them individually, as well as to the cause in which 

 they were engaged, if he forbore to express to 

 to them the high personal regard which bis in- 

 tercourse with them had so much strengthened, 

 and the interest he felt in their efforts to joromote 

 the Agriculure of the Commonwealth. 



It had been a source of profound satisfaction 

 to him that he had been permitted to take a 

 humble part with them in urging forward the 

 work in which they were engaged. And he 

 counted it by no means the least of the honors 

 connected with the place which gave him the 

 privilege of meeting and acting with them, that 

 it had brought him into intimate relation with 

 gentlemen who constituted that Board, and to 

 know, by personal observation, their devotion to 

 the purposes, for which the Board was created. 



He was happy to believe that the interests of 

 agriculture were assuming that importance in the 

 public mind, which their extent and magnitude 

 demanded. Its position among the other call- 

 ings and pursuits of our citizens was becoming 

 better understood and appreciated in the common 

 wealth than it had hitherto been. 



Not a little of this was owing to the character 

 and influence of the members of this Board, and 

 men like them, who had brought to it character, 

 intelligence and practical experience. The need 

 of some measure to elevate agriculture and pro- 

 mote its success in the commonwealth, had long 

 been felt. How it could best be done has long 

 been a desideratum in the policy of government. 

 The plan which had now been adopted seemed to 

 him, in the present state of science and of public 

 sentiment, the best, or perhaps, the only one that 

 could be devised. 



It brought to the subject the combined knowl- 

 edge and experience of gentlemen from different 

 parts of the commonwealth, who, by full confer- 

 ence with each other, were able to test theories, 

 and elicit what the public want to know, the 

 truth of these as determined by accurate experi- 

 ment and sound observation. It provided, too, 



