338 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



ness. It will furnish to invalids and to those re- 

 covering from sickness, ample grounds in which to 

 take air and exercise, and by allowing the lines of 

 enclosure to be removed to a greater distance from 

 the house, will diminish its prison-like appear- 

 ance. 



Its moral effect also upon the people in the 

 house, is by no means to be overlooked. Almost 

 every human being, however ignorant and degra- 

 ded, is influenced by the circumstances in which 

 he is placed, by the scenery by which he is sur- 

 rounded. The people who will occupy this estab- 

 lishment, will be more easily governed and kept 

 in proper order, in a neat, convenient, well ar- 

 ranged house, and in grounds adorned with beau- 

 tiful trees and flowers, and with avenues well 

 kept and clean, than they would in a house in 

 which no regard was paid to appearances, and in 

 whose arrangements g(jod taste had not been con- 

 sulted. There is in every human heart a chord 

 that vibrates responsive to the voices of nature and 

 of beauty ; and by these gentle voices, the most 

 rugged and savage nature is softened and human- 

 ized. It is by no means, a matter of indifference, 

 by what grounds and by what scenery, this and 

 similar institutions are surrounded. But not to 

 enlarge upon this subject, there is another reason 

 why it is well that farms have been connected with 

 the pauper establishment of the State. I notice 

 by the report of the last meeting of the Board of 

 Agricultural Commissioners, that the subject of 

 appropriating a portion of the Reform School farm, 

 to the purposes of experimental farming, was ta- 

 ken up and referred to a committee who are to 

 confer with the Governor in respect to it. I see 

 no reason why a portion of each of the pauper 

 farms may not be devoted to a similar use, with- 

 out diminishing in any material degree its econom- 

 ical value to the State. A series of scientific ex- 

 periments might be accurately conducted with re- 

 spect to the adaptedness of certain seeds and plants 

 and fruits to the climate and soil of New England; 

 with regard to the value of different kinds of ma- 

 nure, both natural and artificial; with regard to 

 the kind of manure which different vegetables re- 

 quire ; with regard to different modes of cultiva- 

 ting crops of established value ; with regard to the 

 feeding of stock, the value of different articles of 

 nutriment, and their effect in producing muscle 

 and fat, and the amount and quality of milk. We 

 need a series of accurate experiments upon all 

 these and many other subjects, and if their pro- 

 cesses and results were carefully stated, they would 

 be of inestimable value to the farmers and gai-den- 

 ers of the State. I have had occasion to observe 

 before, in your paper, that the deductions of sci- 

 ence, especially when they relate to subjects pos- 

 sessing vitality, need to be verified by experiment. 

 When they relate to dead matter, if the circum- 

 stances are all known, they maybe more safely 

 relied on. But when they relate to subjects mod- 

 ified by the vital power, a power with regard to 

 whose essence we know absolutely nothing, and 

 •with regard to whoso laws we know but little, then 

 they are to be relied on no liirther than they are 

 justified by actual experiment. The State now owns 

 three farms, situated in sections distant from each 

 other, and different series, or different classes of 

 experiments, might be instituted upon each of 

 them. 



For instance, the Tewksbury farm is situated in 



a fruit-growing section of the >State. The geolog- 

 ical formation of all that region indicates its adapt- 

 edness to the cultivation of the apple ; and were 

 this indication wanting, the success of the fruit 

 growers of Bedford, Billerica, North Tewksbury, 

 Wilmington and Andover, proves this region suit- 

 ed to the cultivation of fruit. The Woodpecker or 

 Baldwin, AA'as first found in Burlington, but a few 

 miles distant, and first cultivated to any extent, in 

 Woburn and Wilmington, by Col. Baldwin and 

 Capt. Jacques. The farm itself is admirably situ- 

 ated for the cultivation of fruit. The whole plat 

 of ground on which the buildings are situated, 

 would make a splendid orchard; some subsoil drain- 

 ing might perhaps be required of a portion of it. 

 Consideraljle portions of it might be appropriated 

 to the cultivation of different kinds of fruit, and to 

 grafting and budding upon different kinds of stocks 

 without interfering essentially with the production 

 of vegetables for the establishment. A portion of 

 the farm has a soil well adapted to the cultivation 

 of garden seeds, and perhaps a part of the females 

 in the house might be profitably employed in this 

 kind of culture. 



The stock owned by the State Agricultural So- 

 ciety might be kept at Southboro', and this might 

 be made the stock farm of the State. Grains and 

 grasses might be cultivated at Palmer, and thus 

 the Agricultural Board or its Secretary might have 

 an interest in each of them, and by visits and sug- 

 gestions, by supplying seeds and plants, and arti- 

 ficial manures, and in various ways, might contri- 

 bute to their agricultural success, and by collect- 

 ing the results of these various experiments, and 

 laying them before the public, they might accom- 

 plish one important end for which they were ap- 

 pointed. J. R. 



Concord, June 14, 1853. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 

 STATE REFORM SCHOOL. 



Mr. Editor: — The discriminating notice of the 

 Institution for the reformation of disobedient boys, 

 established by the State at Westboro', by the mu- 

 nificent donation of the late Gen. Lyman, con- 

 tained in your paper of this date, is worthy of 

 more than one perusal. Having participated in 

 the view of the condition of the Institution, as it 

 appeared on the 1st of June, I thought I might be 

 excused in a few suggestions, for which you did 

 not find space. 



First, as to the personal cleanliness of the boys. 

 If I do not mistake, there was a great deficiency. 

 Their hands and their faces looked as though ivater 

 was scarce and soap dear. Their heads too, it makes 

 me crai<;/ a// ot'er to think of them. Such things 

 ought not to be. Who can wonder that deaths 

 should be sudden and frequent, under such cir- 

 cumstances 1 One poor fellow from Salem, it was 

 said, died the week previous, after an illness of 

 only /owr hours ; was this cholera 1 It cannot be 

 called J.sia/ic Cholera. One gentleman remarked, 

 he died o{ rotten potatoes — and when the collar was 

 examined, there was no want of proof on this point. 

 Such an eflluvia as pervaded the establishment en- 

 tire, from decaying vegetables, I have never before 

 met. Perhaps it was worse at that time, as they 

 were then occupied in clearing the cellar. The 

 error was in ever putting them there, or certainly 

 in suffering them to remain, until they rotted. 



