64 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



This fact is rather against our preconceived notions, but we 

 state it as given, our purpose being, to ascertain facts, and not 

 to establish a particular theory. 



We accidentally happened to be on the ground j^of John 

 Stone, Jr., of Marblehead, while he was gathering his carrots, 

 and complained to him that he had not asked the attention 

 of the committee to his crop. He said they came up so badly 

 that he should be ashamed to speak of them. We saw among 

 them some carrots that were as much as sixteen inches in 

 circumference and twenty-four inches long, and which would 

 weigh six pounds or more. Mr. Stone estimated his crop at 

 twenty tons or upwards to the acre, and he is not the man to 

 overstate. 



On Mr. Mason's ground we saw a luxuriant field of carrots, 

 of the produce of which we should have been pleased to have 

 been informed, but as we are not, we cannot say more. 



On the land of Henry King, of Danvers, we saw a beautiful 

 field of carrots, up well, and enough of them, — but when we 

 inquired the result, we were told a blight came upon them, the 

 leaves turned yellow, — and further our informant said not. 

 The same in substance was the result of our inquiries of sev- 

 eral other cultivators of the carrot crop. 



Mr. Ware, of the committee, continues to entertain a favor- 

 able opinion of the cultivation of the carrot, as will be seen in 

 the letter annexed. 



Not having any statement of the culture of carrots the pres- 

 ent season, we have given the above facts that came within our 

 own observation : that some idea may be formed how the carrot 

 grows, comparatively with other crops. 



As to BEETS, the attention of the committee has been called 

 to the claim of Benjamin Rogers, of Andover, for Mangel- 

 wurtzel. As this was the only claim presented for the culti- 

 vation of heets, the committee were disposed to regard it with 

 favor. On examining it, it appears that the land on which 

 they grew, is of small value and of very poor quality, such as 

 ordinarily produces no crop at all. If he who makes two 

 blades of grass to grow where but one grew before, is to be reck- 

 oned a public benefactor, surely he who makes a decent crop 



