Lot No. 2.-This was dressed with Mapes' super-phosphate of lime, and produced 5,505 lbs., or 100 bushels, or a fraction less than 572 bushels per acre.

Lot No. 3.-This was fertilized with De Burg's super-phosphate of lime, and produced 5,630 lbs., or 1024 bushels, or a fraction less than 585 bushels per acre.

Lot No. 4.-This was dressed with potash, and produced 6,046 lbs., or about 110 bushels, or at the rate of 628 bushels per acre.

Lot No. 5.-This was manured with barn manure, and produced 7,255 lbs., or 1311 bushels, or at the rate of 753 bushels per acre. Experiments were also tried on two and a-half acres of old carrot ground, upon which this root had been grown for seven years-soil a light loam, ploughed ten inches deep.

Five-sixths of an acre was dressed with eighteen dollars' worth of potash, dissolved and mixed with sixty bushels of coal ashes. The product was 500 bushels, or 600 bushels to the acre, of as fine carrots

as were ever seen.

One and four-sixths of an acre was manured with reservoir manure, estimated at its comparative value with barn manure, (say 8 cords to the acre.) The product was 900 bushels, or 540 bushels to the acre, but the carrots were neither as large nor long as those dressed with the potash and ashes.

From these experiments we learn that the various manures arrange themselves as to their productive energy in the following order, the cost of each being twelve dollars to the acre:—

The parsnip and onion crops were nearly a failure, occasioned by stagnant water on the land soon after sowing.

Of ruta-baga and other turnips, there were four acres, producing 1,119 bushels, or 2792 bushels per acre. These were manured with barn-yard manure, at the rate of 8 cords to the acre.

The farm also produced crops of pease, beans, tomatoes, cabbages, beets, pumpkins, squashes, and other vegetables; apples, pears, quinces, and other fruits, most of which have been consumed from time to time on the premises, and of which the statistics need not here be given.

From the memoranda of the farmer, the following statement is collated in relation to the

23

66

700

93 tons

390 lbs.

English hay, purchased standing on Fay Farm,

Total amount of fodder, In review of the foregoing statements, important facts may be deduced in regard to the relative value of fertilizers. Stable manures have always proved, and will doubtless continue to be, of standard value. We would by no means detract from their worth, but would urge the utmost care in their production, preservation and application. But where these are insufficient, and cannot be easily applied, others must be used, and it becomes a point of vast importance to agriculturists to ascertain their comparative value and adaptation to soils and crops. On this subject, our experiments, though tried in an unfavorable season, and less satisfactory than we could wish, reflect some light.

In relation to guano, they confirm the general sentiment which has obtained, both in this country and in England, from its use, and assign it a place among the most economical and valuable fertilizers. It possesses peculiar advantages in humid climates and in clayey and carbonaceous soils, where evaporation is less active than in thin or silicious grounds. Hence in England its use has been continually increasing; and here, as there, it has proved not only useful for all crops, but peculiarly successful in the potato and wheat crops. The doubts which have been expressed in relation to its durability and utility may be ascribed to its limited use and the want of scientific application; and these remarks, to a greater or less extent, will apply to all other concentrated manures. Much is yet to be learned, and additional experiments are requisite to settle our opinions respecting them.

Therefore your committee recommend a continuation of similar experiments during the next year, in the hope of a more propitious season and more reliable results.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

MARSHALL P. WILDER.
JOHN A. NASH.

*The oats were so injured by the drought that they were cut for fodder and considered worth about the same as English hay.

The Committee on Labor also presented the following

REPORT.

The Committee on Labor have given as much time and attention to the department committed to them as circumstances would permit.

It is a portion of farm operations of great importance, in an economical point of view, as well as to the care and influence over the boys when under the control of our men.

The rate of wages is necessarily high, in order to command men of ability and character, calculated to improve the moral sense of the boys, and to aid in carrying out the great object of the Trustees-their reformation.

The men working by the month have boarded at the Institution, as much to the annoyance and inconvenience of the Superintendent and his family as to our own. We have repeatedly been requested to provide some other place for them, and the Trustees have given notice that they cannot board them another season. We have no building

at our command in which we can accommodate them. The convenience and economy of having the men board with the farmer is so apparent as to need no argument. It is for the Board to determine what measures they will take in relation to this matter. The labor employed on the farm is not only under the control of the farmer, but he contracts with laborers, and discharges them at his pleasure. We know little of them but through him. From the knowledge we have on the subject, we think the farmer has been anxious to obtain men who will do justice to the boys as well as perform their part in the field.

The number of men employed on the farm, exclusive of those employed on permanent improvements, has averaged seven and one-half for eight months from the first of April.

This included the gardener, who worked by the day, at one dollar and fifty cents, and the farmer.

The wages given were $16, $18, $20, and $22 per month and board.

Boys, average 42 a day, of 6 hours, at 10 cts., for 8 months,

874 10

$3,021 93

Paid for labor of hired men, exclusively employed on per

manent improvements,

Total paid for labor on the farm,

$616 75

$3,638 68

The labor on permanent improvements will, by the farmer's explanation, exceed the amount above stated, and reduce the amount chargeable to the farm, but not materially vary the result. The number of men and boys thought to be necessary for four months to come, to end the year, is four, two at $20 and two at $17 per month, and 20 boys daily.

Wages of men, exclusive of board,

Board four months, at $3 per week,

Farmer's salary four months, .

Twenty boys at 10 cents per day, for four months,

Add the amount for labor on farm before stated,

$296 00

208 00

214 67

208 00

$926 67

3,021 93

Total amount paid for labor on farm, exclusive of perma

nent improvement, is

$3,948 60

The income and other expenses your Committee have no knowledge of, and it must be obtained from the legitimate sources.

Respectfully submitted.

SETH SPRAGUE.
H. W. CLAPP.

December 1, 1854.

A committee was appointed, at this meeting, to confer with the owners of the lands contiguous to the State Farm, and to procure bonds from them for the sale of such lands to the Commonwealth, at any time on or before the first of April, 1855, and this committee was requested to report at the next meeting.

At the annual meeting of the Board of Agriculture, held at the State House, on the third, fourth and fifth of January, Governor Washburn was present, and presided until he was called away to attend to his duties at the Council Chamber.

Before leaving the chair, he remarked that, as it was probably the last time he should have the honor to meet with them,

wished to say a single word at parting. He should be doing injustice to them individually, as well as to the cause in which they were engaged, if he forebore to express to them the high personal regard which his intercourse with them had so much strengthened, and the interest he felt in the success of their efforts to promote the agriculture of the Commonwealth.

It had been a source of profound satisfaction to him that he had been permitted to take a humble part with them in urging forward the work in which they were engaged. And he counted it by no means the least of the honors or pleasures connected with the place which gave him the privilege of meeting and acting with them, that it had brought him into so intimate relation with gentlemen who constituted that Board, and to know by personal observation their devotion to the purposes for which the Board was created.

He was happy to believe that the interests of agriculture were assuming that importance in the public mind which their extent and magnitude demanded. Its position among the other callings and pursuits of our citizens was becoming better understood and appreciated in the Commonwealth than it had hitherto been.

Not a little of this was owing to the character and influence of the members of this Board, and men like them, who had brought to it character, intelligence and practical experience.

The need of some measure to elevate agriculture, and promote its success in the Commonwealth, had long been felt. How it could be best done, had long been a desideratum in the policy of the government.

The plan which had now been adopted seemed to him, in the present state of science and public sentiment, the best, and perhaps the only one that could be devised. It brought to the subject the combined knowledge and experience of gentlemen from different parts of the Commonwealth, who, by free conferences with each other, were able to test theories, and elicit what the public want to know-the truth of these, as determined by accurate experiment and sound observation.

It provided, too, for a body of men whose interests were the same with those of every farmer in the Commonwealth, and