SECRETARY'S REPORT. 13 



to teach them how to work. But especially would it be the 

 case if all the hundred were of a class sent to a school for 

 reformation, and committed for criminal or juvenile offences. 



This has been precisely the case at the farm during the last 

 five years. The estimates on a preceding page, of the amount 

 earned by the boys on the farm, are based on the rate of ten 

 cents a day, which is the amount agreed upon between the 

 Board of Agriculture and the trustees of the school, by the 

 original contract made in 1854. That amount seems, at first 

 sight, to be small, but, in point of fact, as already intimated, it 

 was far more than double what the labor, under all the circum- 

 stances, was worth to the farm. 



Moreover, it is to be borne in mind, that in the vicinity of a 

 public institution, something is required for ornament: that is, 

 in making improvements 1*he prospective wants of the State 

 must be kept constantly in view. On an ordinary fiirm, for 

 example, -a common balance wall would answer every purpose 

 of a fence, but no one, with a proper knowledge of the circum- 

 stances of the State Farm at Westboro', would question the 

 propriety of l)uilding good face walls, though the present 

 expense might be a little more. In fact, the Board would have 

 subjected itself to far more just and severe censure for disre- 

 garding the future wants of tlie farm and the State, and half 

 doing whatever was undertaken, than it has from having done 

 things as they ought to have been done ; for in the first case, 

 those who were capable of appreciating aright the position of a 

 great public institution and the credit of the State, would have 

 had just cause of dissatisfaction, while in the latter, only those 

 who are ill-advised or incapable of estimating what has actually 

 been accomplished, have been inclined to find fault. 



With respect to the details of the operations of the past year, 

 the committee chosen to superintend the management of the 

 farm laid out tlie work as follows : — 



CROPS ON THE PLAIN. 



Oats. — Sow eight acres of oats, seeded with clover. Use one 

 hundred pounds of plaster per acre, sown with the seed and har- 

 rowed in, on seven acres, leaving an average acre without plaster. 

 ■Use on two acres two bushels of seed, on two, three bushels, on 

 two, four bushels, and on two, five bushels. Let these four lots 



