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spring water; and have commenced to build two reservoirs for the reception of the sewerage from the Institution.

The plan made from a survey of the farm induces your committee to hesitate before proceeding further. By the plan it will be seen that the farm is an ill-shapen affair, and is one that your committee would not select as being likely to succeed as a model or experimental farm.

The barn is located on a point of the farm, instead of the centre; and the consequence is, that all the manure must be hauled a considerable distance to the fields, and the hay and other crops an equal distance to the barn. The cattle must be driven nearly half a mile to and from the pasture; and these operations, and many others like them, involve much expense of time and labor. Your committee, therefore, before recommending any course of improvement for the coming year, would earnestly recommend the purchase of more land, for the sake of improving the shape of the farm, as well as to bring more tillage land near the barn. Such lands, moreover, are actually wanted to increase the resources of the farm in some proportion to the increase of the wants of the Institution. It is known to the Board that we must have more farm buildings. The farm house is wholly inadequate to the wants of the farm, and the workmen have been boarded out, for want of accommodations, all the past sumYour committee have taken measures to ascertain that much of the land contiguous to the farm can be had at a reasonable price. By the purchase of these lands some tenements and out buildings will be obtained, which, though not such as the committee would desire, will yet answer the purposes of the farm for some years, till a suitable farm house can be erected. It is a matter of great importance that these lands should be purchased immediately. Since the State Reform School has been located on the grounds at great expense, it is not probable that it will ever be removed. The number of its inmates and its usefulness will, on the other hand, be greatly extended. This additional land, also, will give employment to the boys for time to come, and the products will always be needed at the Institution.

mer.

Your committee are, therefore, induced to await the decision of the Board and of the Legislature before proceeding to lay out the general improvements to be undertaken for the ensuing year.

Respectfully submitted.

B. V. FRENCH.
SIMON BROWN.

The remarks of the committee on stock will also show that the resources of the farm, within its present limits, are not

adequate to supply the wants of the school, and that it has been found necessary to purchase hay and to hire pasturage to keep even the number of cows already there. The experiments made under the direction of this committee, though necessarily limited in extent, are of great interest. They appear in the following

REPORT.

The undersigned, Committee on Stock, have attended to their duty as diligently as circumstances would permit. They have charge of all the stock of the farm, including farming utensils. Among the live stock under their care they have had thirty-five swine and twentythree milch cows. The swine were valued, on the first day of April last, at $575, and have mostly been sold, and their places made good by their young descendants; and their number had increased, on the first of December, to seventy-five, and their value decreased to $558. We have now on hand in value, of swine, within $17, as much as in April last, and a considerable amount of pork has been sold. The cows have produced, up to the first day of December, 6,469 gallons of milk and 511 pounds of veal.

The relation between the quantity and value of food consumed by dairy cows, and the milk, butter or cheese produced, has never been satisfactorily settled in this State; and although we may believe that cows in general consume food in proportion to their live weight, and yield milk or some other product in proportion to the food consumed, we have no satisfactory proof of the fact. In order to elicit some information upon this subject, the undersigned obtained the consent, in June last, of the superintending committee, to make such experiments with the milch cows as they should deem expedient. In pursuance of this consent, they directed Mr. White, the farmer, to weigh the milk of each cow night and morning daily, and to weigh each cow on the evening of the tenth and morning of the eleventh day of each month; but owing to the hurry of the work on the farm and other circumstances not under his control, he omitted to execute the order, and the experiments are limited to the weighing of the milk for ten days, from the twentieth to the thirtieth of June, and for ten days, from the twentieth to the thirtieth of August, and the weighing of the cows on the morning of the eleventh and the evening of the tenth of June and the evening of the thirty-first of August and the morning of the first of September-too short a time to afford a basis for conclusive deductions. They however afford, as will be seen by the tables, some useful information.

Names of Cows.

Age.

Weight of twenty-one Cows, belonging to the State Farm, Westborough, on the evening of the 10th of June and the morning of the 11th; also, a memorandum of Milk given by the same Cows, in ten days, from the 20th to the 30th of

June.

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Average loss on each cow between evening weight, when full, and morning weight, when empty, 56.66 pounds. Average loss per cent. on evening weight, 5.83. Nine cows from eight to ten years old inclusive, average age nine years and three months, and weighing 9,345 pounds evening weight, lost in the morning 490 pounds. Average loss on each cow, 54.44 pounds. Average loss per cent. on the evening weight of each of the nine cows, 5.24 per cent.

Twelve young cows, from five to seven years old inclusive, average age five years and six months, and weighing 11,050 pounds evening weight, lost in the morning 700 pounds. Average loss on each cow, 58.33 pounds. Average loss per cent. on evening weight of each of the twelve cows, 6.33. The twelve young cows lost 1.09 per cent. more between evening and morning weight than the nine old cows. Six of the twelve young cows were milked both morning and evening before weighing, and but two of the nine old cows were milked before weighing. This may account in part for the greater loss on the young cows.

The number of days after calving of the nine old cows was 150.6, while the number of days after calving of the twelve young cows was 137.5. This may be another reason why the young cows lost more between morning and evening weight than the old cows. Average number of days after calving, 143. Daily average of milk 143 days after calving, 25.28 pounds. Daily average of milk on the average morning and evening weight, 2.83 per cent. The average time after calving of the nine old cows was 150.6 days, and their daily flow of milk was 2.37 per cent. on their average weight.

The average time after calving of the twelve young cows, 137 days, and their daily flow of milk, was 3.30 per cent. of their average weight. The daily flow of milk from the twelve young cows being greater than that from the nine old cows, the difference between the evening and morning flow would be greater; hence, an additional reason for the greater loss between the evening and morning weight of the young than the old cows.

Weight of seventeen Cows, belonging to the State Farm in Westborough, on the evening of the 31st of August and the morning of the 1st of September, and a memorandum of milk given by twelve of the same Cows, from the 20th to the 30th of August, (ten days.)

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780 825 802 45 123 116.20 11.62 1.45 15,725 16,575 15,152 850

Average loss on each cow between evening weight, when full, and morning weight, when empty, 50 pounds. Average loss per cent. on evening weight, 5.12.

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