ESSEX SOCIETY. 65 



to grow where none grew before, cannot be undeserving the 

 Society's premium, although some of his more fortunate neigh- 

 bors, in the possession of better lands, shall be favored with 

 crops more abundant. The skill exhibited in the production, 

 and not the amount produced^ is what we aim to approve. 



A communication from Joseph Snelling, Jr., of Methuen, on 

 the cause of the decay or failure of the potato, is appended to 

 this report as worthy of publication. It indicates a good de- 

 gree of attention to the subject, and may be the means of 

 awakening the attention of others. In this way alone may a 

 remedy be hoped. That some soils are more flivorable to the 

 growth of sound potatoes than others, cannot be doubted ; and 

 when the chemical constituents that favor such a growth shall 

 be ascertained, possibly combinations of soil may be formed 

 that shall ensure successful culture. 



On the grounds of Lyman Mason, near West Beach, in Bev- 

 erly, the attention of the committee was called to a field of 

 CABBAGES, Containing about one and a half acre, the hand- 

 somest they ever saw. It was level land, a loamy soil, had 

 been in grass, ploughed the eighth of May, about eight inches 

 deep, harrowed, furrowed in rows three and a half feet apart, 

 and manured with a mixture of barn manure and leached 

 ashes, applying four cords to the acre, well mixed, placed in 

 the rows. The seed was planted in hills, about the 20th of 

 June. When grown sufficiently large to hoe, they were thinned 

 to one in a hill, and the vacant hills were supplied by trans- 

 planting, so that the growth was uniform throughout the field. 

 When we saw the field, the proprietor challenged us to find a 

 missing plant, or one on which a head would not be perfectly 

 formed. The whole were as near alike as so many peas. 

 From this field seven thousand five hundred and twenty have 

 been sold for sixty cents a dozen ; one-fourth part of the cab- 

 bages are still in the field, — this would make nine thousand on 

 the lot, or six thousand to the acre, which at sixty cents per 

 dozen would make the produce amount to three hundred dol- 

 lars per acre. These facts are furnished the committee by 

 Aaron Dodge, who ascertained them by conversation with Mr. 

 Mason. Mr. Mason is one of those cultivators who has very 

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