152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Secretary, and the Committee requested permission to postpone 

 their report until the next yoa.v, trusting that by personal obser- 

 vation and study, if not by circulars, they might procure some 

 useful knowledge upon the interesting and important subject 

 confided to them. In the hope that some other method of in- 

 quiry might induce persons, known to be engaged in breeding 

 horaes, or interested in the improvement of this kind of stock, 

 to furnish the desired information, another circular was issued 

 and sent by mail both to a large number of private individuals 

 and to the secretaries of the various agricultural societies of 

 the Commonwealth for distribution. In this circular the fol- 

 lowing questions were propounded : — 



1. Please to state the name of any stallion, or stallions, used for 

 breedina; purposes in your vicinity ; al;40, the pedigree, (when perfectly 

 reliable,) the height, weight, age, color and speed ; al-o, the number of 

 mares covered during the season of 18.59, the price of service, and the 

 general character of the colts got previously ; also, the names of the 

 breeder and present owner. 



2. AVhat is the cost of rearing, in the best manner, a colt to the age 

 of three and a half years, reckoning the loss of labor of the mare Avhen 

 unfit to work, and the value of grass, hay, oats and roots consumed by 

 the colt ? 



3. What breed of stallions will be most likely to get valuable road- 

 sters when crossed upon the mares of your vicinity ? 



4. "What breed of stallions are best adapted to protluce horses for 

 general farm purposes ? 



5. Considering the eminent success of breeders in Vermont during 

 the last ten years, and the present high prices of first rate driving and 

 draught horses, might not horses, in your opinion, be bred profitably by 

 stock-growers generally in this State ? 



G. Inasnuich as the bi'ced of cattle best suited ibr the dairy in the 

 grazing districts of this State are commonly esteemed too light for 

 draught, and those best adapted for fattening are sutficieiuly mature for 

 market helore they are old enough to work ; and since many of the im- 

 proved agricullural implements now in use require horse-power; and 

 .since horses work more I'apidly and for a much greater number of years 

 than oxen, would it not be more economical to employ, in most cases, 

 horses, or mules, instead of oxen in the performance of farm labor? 



The Committee arc under obligations to the following gen- 

 tlemen for replies to their inquiries, namely : — 



