ESSEX SOCIETY. 63 



are inclined to underrate their crops and overrate their labor, — 

 possibly, that they may continue to monopolize the benefits ; 

 the committee have no such feeling. They know that in 

 some seasons there are blights that cut the crop off entirely, but 

 generally it is otherwise, and they still speak with confidence 

 in favor of this crop. 



The largest produce reported to them, was that of Lyman 

 Mason of Beverly, six hundred and sixty-nine bushels on one 

 hundred and thirty rods of land, or four and three-eighths 

 bushels per rod. The next largest produce reported to them, 

 was that of Daniel Buxton, Jr., of Danvers, four hundred 

 and forty-eight bushels on one hundred and five rods of land, 

 or four and two-eighths bushels per rod. The next, by Mr. 

 Proctor, of Danvers, four bushels per rod. Mr. King, Mr. 

 Bushby, Mr. Griffin, and several others, in Danvers, whose 

 fields they saw, raised about this amount. Taking all things 

 into view, they saw no crop equal to that of Daniel Buxton, Jr., 

 and therefore they award to him the Society's-premium, " for 

 the best conducted experiment in the raising of onions," six 

 dollars. 



As to the cultivation of the carrot, the committee have 

 been disappointed in their expectations. They had hoped to 

 have ascertained some facts, tending to settle some questions, 

 on which there appears to be a difference of opinion. Such 

 as, whether or not the carrot can be advantageously cultivated 

 several years in succession, on the same land ? It is said, by 

 the best authority in the county of Worcester, that it has been 

 so cultivated seven years successively, with good crops. Such 

 has not been the general experience by the cultivators in Essex. 

 In the hope of throwing light on this question, Francis Dodge, 

 of Danvers, who the last year obtained the society's pre- 

 mium, was requested to plant the same land with carrots. This 

 he did, but they came up so thin, that during the first part of 

 the season he had little hope of a middling crop. But they 

 continued to grow and almost made up in size what was want- 

 ing in NUMBER, — he estimated the produce at twenty-three tons 

 to the acre, and thought if they had come up as he intended 

 they should, his crop would have been as good as he ever raised. 



