164 MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



fruit, which has become an important article of exportation, 

 and to the raising of which, large portions of the soil of Mid- 

 dlesex county seem to be peculiarly adapted. As the funds of 

 the society were not sufficient to justify the oifer of a larger 

 premium than ten dollars, one of the trustees, — ^N. J. Wyeth, 

 Esq., — with characteristic public-spirited liberality, immediately 

 contributed forty dollars, thus making the premium fifty dol- 

 lars, "for the largest quantity of cranberries raised on four 

 square rods of ground." It was expected that so generous a 

 premium would excite some competition ; but that expectation 

 has not, hitherto, been fulfilled. In 1848, the committee were 

 invited to examine the ground of one applicant for the premium, 

 which, in their judgment, was entitled to no consideration 

 whatever. One, and only one, application has been made the 

 present year. The committee, acting in correspondence with 

 that rule of the society, which permits them to withhold pre- 

 miums for any given object, when there is no competition, — 

 rejected the claim, but have awarded a gratuity oi five dollars, — 

 although the plantation examined afforded rather more evidence 

 of intelligence on the part of the proprietor, than that which 

 they examined in 1848. Annexed, is the statement which ac- 

 companied the application for the premium. 



Sylvester Reeves''s Statement. 



The following is a statement of the course pursued in culti- 

 vating the cranberry vine. The soil is a sandy loam, — subject 

 to high floods from the river, — was ploughed a number of years 

 since, — the soil being left very uneven, irregularly in heaps, as 

 was usual in breaking up new land, and in that state left to sward 

 over. In 1841, I commenced placing the vines out, by cutting 

 with a spade the sods ten inches square, with two or three inches 

 of the soil attached, first removing from the meadow, sods of 

 the same dimensions, — taking particular care that each sod of 

 vines, should come in contact with the soil of the meadow, and 

 even also with its surface. 



