12 



GARDENS. 



Whole number of entries 16. Vegetable Gardens by hired gardener 2 ; 

 other Vegetable Gardens 7 ; Flower Gardens by hired gardener 1 ; other Flower 

 Gardens 6. 



There were not the usual number of entries of gardens this 

 season. The almost unprecedented freeze the last of May and the 

 dry weather that followed were doubtless the reasons. 



Early in July we started on our tour of inspection. The 

 weather was perfect, the copious showers that succeeded the 

 drouth had so changed the face of nature, there were no traces of 

 the famine some of the fearful had predicted. The hospitality we 

 enjoyed certainly bespoke a land of plenty. 



The vegetable gardens for the most part were looking well. 

 The flower gardens, with one or two exceptions, did not come' up to 

 the supposed standard. More care and taste in laying out the beds 

 and in the arrangements of plants, together with the cultivation of 

 a few more choice varieties would have added much to their appear- 

 ance. We made our second trip the fore part of September with 

 the thermometer up, up, up, and still rising. We found it a good 

 time for testing some of the fine melons we saw. Most of the gar- 

 dens, barring two or three, showed very marked improvement, it 

 seemed almost a miracle the strides some of them had taken. The 

 expenditure of time, labor, and skill, needed to have a good garden, 

 is much greater than that required to raise almost any of the farm 

 crops, but the premiums given are not so much. Considering the 

 importance of a good garden to the farmer's family, living as most 

 of them do at a distance from the market, and that so many of them 

 greatly neglect their gardens now, the committee would recommend 

 an increase of premiums, hoping thereby to quicken their interest in 

 this department. The committee would also recommend a separate 

 division for market gardens : 



Best Vegetable Garden cared for by professional or hired gardener W. H. Gib- 

 bons, Great Barrington, f 5 

 2d do.. T. G. Ramsdell, Great Barrington, 4 



Best Vegetable Garden, cared for by competitor, not professional, Horace Z. 

 Candee, Sheffield, 5 



2d do., Ralph Little, Sheffield 4 



3d do., W. W. Norton, Great Barrington, 3 



4th do., Dwight Andrews, Sheffield, 2 



5th do, William I. Walker. Great Barrington, 1 



Large Market Garden, special premium, D. S. Busby, Great Barrington, 4 



Best Flower Garden by professional or hired gardener, Mrs. T. G. Ramsdell, 

 Great Barrington, 4 



Best Flower Garden cared for entirely by the competitor, Mrs. Dwight An- 

 drews, Sheffield, 5 

 2d do., Fred Dellert. Great Barrington, 4 

 3d do., Nellie E. Tobey, Great Barrington, 3 

 4th do., Mrs. Esther Clark, 2 

 5th do., D. S. Busby, Monterey, 1 

 Committee.— William C. Dalzell, Mrs. George Kellogg, Miss Jennie Sheldon. 



FALL CROPS. 

 Whole number of entries 314. Five acres Corn 19 ; Three acres Com 28 ; 



One acre Corn 50 ; Two acres Sowed Corn 10 : one-half acre Sowed Corn 27: 



