1858.] SENATE— No. 4. 227 



of the boys is a source of great expense to the Farm, instead 

 of profit, inasmuch as it is absohitely necessary to hire an intel- 

 ligent class of men, at high wages, to superintend them, and to 

 keep them for a considerable portion of the year on permanent 

 improvements which make no immediate pecuniary return. 

 With the necessity of employing the labor of the boys, nearly 

 twice as many men are required as would be needed to carry 

 the Farm on without this necessity. The character of tlie men 

 who compose the superintending committee of the Farm, every 

 one of whom was chosen to the Board by the farmers them- 

 selves, to act for and to represent them, and the fact that they 

 devote their time and their services to the public without the 

 slightest compensation, and without personal emolument of any 

 kind, should be regarded as a sufficient guarantee that they 

 will manage the Farm as judiciously and as economically for 

 the Commonwealth, as any body of men could be reasonably 

 expected to do under the same circumstances. 



It was voted not to hire any land at the Farm except for 

 pasturage. 



The subject of holding' another State Fair coming up for 

 consideration, it was voted to defer the final decision of the 

 matter to the next meeting of the Board. It was also 



Resolved, That the thanks of this Board be tendered to the Massa- 

 chusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, for the very cor- 

 dial support it has ever rendered this Board, and especially for the 

 generous approimation of two thousand dollars made to the funds for 

 sustaining the late State Agricultural Exhibition held in Boston. 



Resolved, That the Secretary of the Board present a copy of the 

 above vote to the Trustees of said Society. 



At the same meeting a committee appointed at a previous 

 one, to investigate the causes and remedy of the diseases of the 

 potato, with reference, especially, to the applications made for 

 the bounty offered by the Commonwealth, presented the follow- 

 ing preliminary 



REPORT: 



The committee to whom was referred the investigations of the 

 various methods of arresting the disease of the potato, proposed by 



