No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 343 



the preliminary arrangements and the details of the act 

 which it might be desirable for them to recommend. These 

 joint committees petitioned the Legislatm-e of 1854, and 

 chapter 45 resulted. ^ 



The committee of the Legislature to whom the petition 

 was referred made a report, in which the following occurs : — 



The object of the State Reform School was the reformation 

 of juvenile offenders. For the double purpose of supplying 

 milk, vegetables, and other needful agricultural products, and 

 also affording useful and healthful employment to the inmates, 

 a farm was connected with the school ; with some recent pur- 

 chases, it now contains about 285 acres. 



The necessary act having been passed, the Board of Agri- 

 culture met on April 11, accepted the act, and voted to 

 approve the agreement made by the committees of the trus- 

 tees and of the Board, dated March 24, 1854. In this 

 agreement we find the following : ^ — 



The purpose of this arrangement is to relieve the Trustees 

 of the State Reform School of the care and management of the 

 agricultural portion of the establishment at Westborough, to 

 provide an experimental farm for the Board of Agriculture, 

 and to furnish greater facilities for the employment and in- 

 struction of the inmates of the Reform School in agriculture 

 and horticulture, in accordance with what are believed to have 

 been the views and wishes of General Theodore Lyman, the 

 founder of the institution, while the products of the farm shall 

 continue to be applied for the use of the school substantially 

 as they were while the farm was under the immediate control 

 of said Board of Trustees. 



This agreement or contract was made for the term of five 

 years. On April 4, 1855, the joint committees entered into 

 an agreement " that 150 boys shall be employed upon the 

 farm each work day during the present season and so long 

 as the ground shall remain open for farm work, stormy days 

 excepted." During 1857 employment was furnished for 



* Senate, No. 5, 1854. Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1854 (Part I.) , p. 2. 

 " Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1854 (Part I.), pij. 6, 168. 



