BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 1855. EX OFFICIIS. HIS EXCELLENCY HENRY J. GARDNER. EPHRAIM M. WRIGHT, Secretary of State. APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. NATHANIEL WOOD, of Fitchburg. MASSACHUSETTS, ESSEX, MIDDLESEX, CHOSEN BY THE SOCIETIES. MIDDLESEX, SOUTH,. WORCESTER, WEST,. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, of Boston. WILLIAM PARKHURST, of Petersham. WORCESTER, NORTH, IVERS PHILLIPS, of Fitchburg. SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : IN a Report which I had the honor to submit to the Legislature in January last, I took occasion to say, that "the want of reliable and accurate experiments in Agriculture is now very generally felt, and it has been the desire of the Board to have such conveniences as would enable them to conduct a series of experiments in such a manner as to secure the confidence of the community. Those made by individuals in various parts of the State have been very valuable, and in some cases very costly, but as long as there is no concert of action, our ignorance and confusion of ideas respecting the many questions still remaining to be answered, in agricultural science, will continue. It has been thought that if a tract of land sufficiently large, and with such a variety of soils as would make it convenient for carrying on experiments, could be provided, the Board of Agriculture would be able to do something by which these evils might be gradually remedied, and the wants of the farming community supplied. No provision has, as yet, been made to enable the Board to direct special attention to this subject.' The Board had examined the farm connected with the State Reform School at Westborough, and finding it well adapted for the purpose, and that the Trustees of that institution were desirous to forward so important an object, resolved to petition the Legislature for an Act authorizing the transfer of the farm into the hands of the Board of Agriculture. This was accordingly done by a committee acting in conjunction with a committee of the Trustees, and the following paper was presented To the Honorable the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General Court assembled :— The subscribers, a committee of the Trustees of the State Reform School, and a committee of the State Board of Agriculture, and in behalf of said Boards, respectfully pray your honorable body to pass an Act authorizing the Trustees of the State Reform School to place the whole or any part of the lands at Westborough, owned by the Commonwealth, under the charge of the State Board of Agriculture, for such term and on such conditions as may be agreed upon by the two Boards, and to authorize the Board of Agriculture to hold and manage the same; and also respectfully pray your honorable body to grant an appropriation to the State Board of Agriculture of the sum of thousand dollars, for the purpose of permanent improvements and agricultural experiments, and to defray the ordinary expenses of said farm for the current year. And as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray. DANIEL H. FORBES, HARVEY DODge, J. H. W. PAGE, Committee of the Trustees of the State Reform School. MARSHALL P. WILDER, SETH SPRAGUE, SIMON BROWN, CHARLES L. FLINT, Committee of the State Board of Agriculture. January 26, 1854. The Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, to whom this petition was referred, made the following |