310 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



more or less engaged in carrying out the arrangements 

 for the inauguration of the Franklin statue. J. Hyde 

 & Son offered a collection of sixty-seven varieties of 

 potatoes, explaining on the cards their relative value 

 for culture. Several persons exhibited the Dioscorea 

 Batatas (Chinese yam) and the Holcus saccharatus 

 (Chinese sugar-cane), of which sanguine hopes were 

 entertained that they would become valuable agricultu- 

 ral products, the former as supplementing the potato, 

 and the latter as supplying sugar or syrup. 



The reports of the various committees continued to 

 increase in fulness and interest. The Committee on 

 Gardens gave a detailed account of the various places 

 visited by them, the first being that of M. H. Simpson 

 at Saxon ville, where they examined his experiments in 

 growing three crops of grapes in two years. The next 

 was to the flower garden of Joseph S. Cabot, president 

 of the Society, at Salem, to whom they awarded the 

 first prize ; here also they visited the graperies and lily 

 house of John Fisk Allen. The next trip was to the gar- 

 den of Mrs. F. B. Durfee at Fall River, who received 

 the premium for the best graperies, and whose gardener, 

 Mr. Young, received a gratuity for the fine condition 

 of the lawns and grass plats. Charles Copeland's pleas- 

 ure grounds at Wyoming were next examined, and 

 received the highest award. Two of the oldest and most 

 famed seats in Massachusetts, the Gov. Gore estate in 

 Waltham, afterwards owned by Theodore Lyman, and, 

 at the time of this visit, by T. W. Walker, and Oakley 

 Place, the estate of George W. Pratt in Watertown, 

 next received the attention of the committee. To Mr. 

 Walker was awarded the premium for the best vegeta- 

 ble garden, and the second prize for a flower garden, 



