206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cessful farming, is an axiom in agriculture that need not be 

 repeated. 



We regret to say, that in this important particular a gross 

 negligence was too apparent. Although at the visit of your 

 Committee in December, some twenty two-year-olds had been 

 added to the stock, and all were kept in the barn, yet not a par- 

 ticle of bedding was to be seen, nor was there a single load of 

 loam, muck or sand used in the cellar for an absorbent, nor was 

 the bottom of the cellar cemented. This stock, we were told, 

 was purchased for tlie purpose of converting hay and grain into 

 manure. 



A large portion of the farm is in a somewhat rough state, pre- 

 senting an uneven surface, and producing an indifferent crop of 

 grass, both as to quality and quantity. Some of the land has 

 been already underdrained, and more of it must be, before its 

 full value can be realized ; yet we would not advise an expendi- 

 ture in this direction, until those sections which do not require 

 draining have been brought into a higher state of cultivation. 



The hoed crops which we examined in August were far from 

 looking luxuriant or promising ; they did not compare favorably 

 even with similar crops in fields adjoining tlie college farm. 

 The experiment of raising two good crops on the same ground 

 and at the same time had evidently been on trial, and had proved 

 a failure. Weeds had been allowed to make too rank a growth 

 before they were destroyed, and it was also apparent that they 

 increased about in the ratio as the distance from the paths and 

 travelled roads increased, the margin of the fields being compar- 

 atively clean. But in all the crops which we examined, none 

 were observed to be under the rigid rule of clean culture. 



The vegetable garden, which was budding with so much prom- 

 ise in the spring, appeared in August to have had a fitful strug- 

 gle for existence during the summer, and was evidently suffering 

 from the inroads of noxious weeds and insects injurious to veg- 

 etation. 



Our second visit was made on the 4th of August, and, by in- 

 vitation, we dined witli the students ; and it was a noticeable 

 and we might say a significant fact, that the only vegetable found 

 on the bill of fare or on the table was the potato. No fruit of 

 any kind. 



Now these facts, taken in connection with the course of lee- 



