208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



The first Report presented was the following from the com- 

 mitee on 



LAB OR: 



It is now the fourth year since this Board has had the control and 

 management of the State Reform School Farm, at Westborough. 



The peculiar circumstances vmder which this farm is held, and the 

 nature of the same, have annually tended to render the expense of 

 carrying it on, much greater than it would have been, had it been 

 owned and carried on by one individual, which should be distinctly 

 understood before an opinion can be correctly formed, whether the 

 money expended by your Committee has been judiciously or other- 

 wise expended. 



The State Reform School was located in the town of Westborough 

 from its geographical relation to the other parts of the State. The 

 farm selected bounded upon a beautiful pond, surrounded on three 

 sides by hills, upon one of which the school building was erected, 

 facing the south, and giving a fine prospect of the pond and surround- 

 ing country. 



The character of the soil nor shape of the farm seem to have been 

 hardly considered by the parties locating the buildings ; the land 

 being rough, stony, and either cold and wet, or sandy loam, having 

 for years been devoted chiefly to pasturage ; in fact, a fair sample of 

 a New England farm. 



The shape resembles a crescent, the buildings being located on one 

 end, giving a range of teaming, on the premises, of nearly three- 

 quarters of a mile ; much of the arable land being situated at a dis- 

 tance from the barns. The farm consisted of about two hundred and 

 eighty- five acres of land, walled with stone chiefly, but in a dilapi- 

 dated condition. 



The barns having been built previously to the State Board of Agri- 

 culture having possession, are, although well constructed, sadly 

 located for a profitable result in farming, if the remark made by one 

 of our most thrifty farmers in Norfolk County is true, "That the 

 location of the barns on a farm gives the difierence in result to the 

 owners, between success and failure." 



Upon taking possession of the farm two things appeared prominent, 



First. As a Board of Agriculture, the fariR should be carried on 

 judiciously, and economically, as good farmers in the State do theirs ; 

 also certain experiments with land, manures, crops, cattle, fruit, (fee, 

 were expected to be tried, and reported upon, diffusing useful infor- 

 mation at the State's expense. 



