COMPARATIVE VALUE OF CROPS AS FOOD FOR CATTLE.

The Committee on the comparative value of crops as food for cattle, as compared with English Hay, and also on experiments in determining the value of green corn fodder for the production of milk and butter, would report that they have received no applications for the premiums on the above-named experiments, nor any communications whatsoever on either subject.

It is a matter of no small consequence to the producer of beef, milk and butter, to understand the easiest method of production; but, important as the matter appears, there seems to be very little light thrown on the subject by the farmers of Essex County. For, notwithstanding the same premiums have been offered for a long series of years, the Committee have not been able to find the first claimant for those premiums.

It certainly appears as though the farmers think the thing will not pay; and if tha is the fact, you may rest assured they never try it.

In conclusion, we most respectfully beg leave to suggest that, (as to the knowledge of the Committee, the above premiums have never been claimed nor experimented for,) the Society raise the grade of the above premiums, until, in the judgment of the Trustees, they shall be ample to call forth competition and experiments which will prove beneficial, not only to the Society, but to all who may choose to take advantage of such experiments.

J. LONGFELLOW, Chairman.

SWINE.

[The following report of the Committee on Swine was not received in season for insertion in its proper place.]

The question whether the raising of pork in Massachusetts can be made profitable, has its ayes and its noes; and your Committee will be found among the former; that is, we believe it to be so, in a majority of any given number of years, if the farmer will bring into requisition the skill and judgment which is necessary to make any other branch of his business profitable.

Every farmer, in our opinion, should raise pork sufficient for his own family use, and some more; for, as we said before, in a majority of years, he will find it a paying business.

He should be uniform in the amount of stock he keeps, not because he has one year made twenty dollars by fattening two hogs, the next year keep twenty, expecting by them to make two hundred; neither because this year he has made a loss in fattening his pork, clean all out, determined to keep no more hogs until corn is cheaper or pork brings a better price; for when that change comes, he must make a fresh start upon the very top of the market. He must pay ten dollars for a longnosed Western shoat, weighing one hundred pounds; or, if he cannot make up his mind to pay ten dollars for a good case of hog cholera, he must pay five dollars or more for a six weeks. old pig weighing thirty pounds.

Farmers, too, should more generally breed their pigs, as well as fatten them; for we believe that quite as much money is made by the former as by the latter. The present year's prices afford proof of that fact; good pigs in the spring, at five weeks old, sold readily at five dollars; and now in the fall that we are having to sell our pork at six and seven cents, (paying very little or no profit for fattening,) we find that those who have attended to both have made it a fair business.

While your Committee would not express a very decided

preference for any of the breeds now claiming our attention, we would say that our own experience for the past ten years has led us to think very favorably of half breed Chesters for fattening. We would take a full blood Chester Boar, with any deep well-marked Sow, (such we have very often found among the Columbia County hogs); from them we will get a variety of pigs that, with liberal and judicious feeding, will weigh, at the age of seven or eight months, three hundred pounds or

more.

There were a large number of Swine entered for premium, (about fifty,) and many of them very superior animals, far exceeding any former exhibition. The Committee found it no easy thing to determine who should be the successful competitors.

P. R. Basford, of South Danvers, entered a very fine lot of Swine, and although, in the opinion of the Committee, he was not entitled to a premium, yet we would say he presented a stock of Hogs of which he might well be proud, and that he is deserving the thanks of the Society for adding so much of interest to that department of the exhibition.

Henry A. King, of South Danvers, exhibited a fine breeding Sow, remarkable for her prolific qualities, but as the Committee felt that her success was owing in a great measure to the good management of Mr. King, we had to pass him in our favors, for the premium was for the best Breeding Sow, and not for the best managed breeding.

David S. Tenney, of Newbury, had a very fine Boar of the Stickney breed, which we understand is making his mark in that part of the County.

Your Committee would recommend that sufficient and suitable pens be erected on the ground for the exhibition of Swine. We can see no more propriety in lifting up our Hogs, on boxes of carts four or five feet from the ground, with no chance to see them except through a knot-hole in the side, or

through slat work upon the top, than there would be in placing our Bulls or fat Oxen in that position.

PAUL TITCOMB,

For the Committee.

MANURES.

The Committee on Manures report that there was transferred to them, by the Committee of last year, the statement of Benjamin P. Ware of Marblehead, of his first year's experiment upon the proper depth of applying manure. As the whole experiment is to extend over a period of three years before any premium can be awarded, it is, of course, too early to speak of Mr. Ware's experiment, except to express the hope that it may be carried through, as the results, in the hands of so careful a cultivator, cannot fail to be of practical advantage.

Mr. Ware enters, for the general premium of the Society, an additional lot of land adjoining the five lots in course of experiment for three years. He shows by this experiment the benefits of a liberal supply of manure, and the comparison he has instituted in this respect, commends itself to the Committee as worthy of the first premium, of $15. His statement will be found replete with interest. To understand the treatment of the five other lots, which which No. 6 is compared, reference may be had to the report on the Treadwell Farm in the Transactions of 1860.

The Committee are happy to say that having learned that Richard S. Rogers had instituted a series of experiments in top

dressing, upon his farm in South Danvers, they have been favored by him with a statement hereto annexed, showing the results of the same. From these experiments of two consecutive seasons, it appears that green cow-manure has, with him, proved the most efficient fertilizer as a top dressing—a fact which cannot but excite surprise and attention, as being so widely at variance with the general practice and theory. But facts are what is wanted, and they should receive our candid and careful consideration. In confirmation of the experiment of Mr. Rogers, we will quote from the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1860, part 2d, page 342, a note to a prize essay, by Professor Turner, on the application of manure to the farm :—

"I find the action of manure taken fresh from the yards in July so satisfactory, that I feel no inducement whatever to keep back the more costly, well-rotted manure for this purpose. With the uncertainty how the season may alternate between showers and a powerful sunshine, I cannot wish the ammonia in the dung to be in a forward state of development. If the supply of food is small at first, but increasing as the herbage grows round, through and over the dung, waste will be most effectually prevented."

We commend the above views in connection with the experiment of Mr. Rogers, to our thinking farmers. The experiment has been carefully made, and the statement of it is admirably drawn up. We take great pleasure in placing it upon our records, in the Transactions, confident that it will help sustain the high character they have had in the past, and which it is our duty to endeavor to give to them in the future. For the Committee,

ALLEN W. DODGE.

STATEMENT OF BENJAMIN P. WARE.

Upon the 20th of April, the land, (a description of which