82 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



The room of the spring-house may be from ten to twenty feet square, 

 according to the quantity of milk to be provided for. Trenches are 

 made on the four sides of the floor, bottomed and lined with flat 

 stones. The residue of the floor is likewise paved with stones. The 

 water from the spring enters at the side of one trench, runs all 

 round, and at the opposite side passes away at a hole left in the wall. 

 The under side of this hole is at such a height above the bottom of 

 the trenches as to raise the water just enough to keep the milk cool 

 in the pans, which are placed in it. This water runs perpetually 

 from its source, and as constantly passes off at the outlet. In one of 

 the trenches are also set the cream pots and the pots of butter the 

 night before it is carried to market." 



It was in touching upon his next topic that the orator became 

 slightly facetious, with reference to the impracticability of premiums 

 in the given case, and in so doing implied a compliment to the farm- 

 ers whom he addressed. He said: 



" Much has been said and written concerning an evil which per- 

 vades our whole country, from one extreme of the Union to another, 

 the general use of spirituous liquors, prevailing, in the opinion of 

 wise and good men, to a mischievous excess. Sometimes it has been 

 hoped that agricultural societies might find means to check the per- 

 nicious practice. But the class of farmers who abstain from it must 

 be too numerous to become candidates for premiums on temperance. 

 Besides, such prudent men need no remuneration for their abstinence. 

 Here, virtue is indeed its own reward." 



The orator then referred to the general use by farm laborers in 

 France and Spain of small wines, instead of ardent spirits, and added 

 that a French gentleman with whom he had conversed on the subject 

 admitted that such wine was not equal to good American bottled 

 cider. Upon the topic of cider thus opened up, the orator discoursed 

 at considerable length, with reference solely to the best method of 

 producing it. He dissented from the prevalent idea that any kind of 

 apples will serve in marking good cider, and renounced specifically 

 what used to be called "cider apples," which he terms "wild un- 

 grafted fruit," and then proceeded: 



"In some parts of New Jersey in which ciders of superior excel- 

 lence are made, the farmers produce them wholly by grafting; nor 

 can we expect fully to rival them until we adopt the same practice. 

 In Massachusetts probably different kinds of trees might be selected 

 for orchards which ripen their fruits at the times most proper for 

 making them into cider. Apples until mellow do not attain their 

 highest flavor, and till then cannot give the highest flavor to cider. It 

 would require but little attention to select and propagate the best ap- 

 ples, thus ripening in succession. Such ciders, made of ripe and un- 

 mixed fruits, would also be more easily managed in the most difficult 

 and important part of the process of cider-making, its first fermenta- 

 tion, on the right or wrong conducting of which the character of the 

 cider depends. In one case it will be soft and pleasant; in the other 

 hard and austere." 



The next topic of the address was the ploughing in of green crops 

 for fertilization which was treated at considerable length. The fol- 

 lowing was the peroration : 



" It is supposed, and justly, that these public shows by exciting an 

 emulation among farmers will lead to important improvements incur 

 husbandry. The general question which'the case presents is, ' What 



