No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCxYTION. 383 



of the agricultural societies, and miscellaneous agricultural 

 matter. In the opening sentence of his first report Secre- 

 tary Flint said that he proposed " to review the past and 

 present condition of the agriculture of Massachusetts. The 

 past will be found, it is thought, full of interest and instruc- 

 tion ; the present, full of encouragement and hope." He 

 devoted 100 pages to this review. 



His reports for 1854-59, inclusive, contained information 

 concerning the operations of the Board of Agriculture with 

 the farm of the State Reform School at Westborough. His 

 second report (1854) contained valuable meteorological 

 data, giving, among other things, a history of the droughts 

 from 1623 to 1854, inclusive. A feature of his third report 

 (1855) was an illustrated article of 45 pages on agricultural 

 implements and machines. His fourth report (1856) was 

 taken up to the extent of some 230 pages with an illustrated 

 discussion of grasses, care of grass lands, harvesting the hay 

 crop, etc. A large portion of his fifth report (1857) was 

 given up to an account of the State exhibition held under 

 the direction of the Board of Agriculture at Boston in 

 October. Sixty or more pages of his sixth report (1858) 

 were devoted to a discussion of the Indian corn crop. His 

 eighth report (1860) treated of pleuro-pneumonia in cattle; 

 also sheep husbandry and horses. His ninth report (1861) 

 devoted some 60 pages to the animals of Massachusetts, by 

 E. A. Samuels, while his tenth report (1862) contained an 

 account of his trip to Europe. Beginning with his eleventh 

 report (1863), we find included in these annual volumes 

 the lectures and discussions at the public winter meetings 

 of the Board. This report for 1863 also contained an ac- 

 count of his visit to the International Exhibition at Ham- 

 burg and to the various agricultural schools and farms of 

 Europe. 



These annual volumes, issued for the years 1853-63, in- 

 clusive, contained a total of 7,284 pages of printed matter, 

 or an average of 662 pages per volume. Col. Marshall P. 

 Wilder, in a statement of the " History and Progress of the 

 Board," on the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, said, 

 of these annual reports : — 



