FRUITS. 93 



out. Desirous to give encouragement to exhibitors, the Com- 

 mittee awarded gratuities. 



The different varieties of cranberries were well represented, 

 as usual, and we do not remember to have ever seen any larger 

 or more beautifully colored than those which received the first 

 and second premiums. We advise those who contemplate the 

 improved cultivation of this fruit to obtain plants of Messrs. 

 Hunt & Stetson. 



In concluding their report, the Committee wish to call the 

 attention of the executive officers of the society to the wholesale 

 destruction of birds' eggs which is annually carried on to such 

 an extent as, in the judgment of many, to call for legislative 

 interference. Intelligent observers concur in saying that many 

 useful birds are diminishing in numbers, while insect-s which 

 prey upon vegetation are increasing. In some parts of the 

 county much of the fruit is stung, and kinds that were not 

 molested ten years since are now seriously injured. 

 For the Committee, 



P. Lincoln Cushing. 



maetha's vineyard. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The kinds of fruit designed to furnish the principal topics tor 

 this report, are such as are on exhibition. Still a passing 

 reference to a few kinds whose times of ripening do not allow 

 them to appear upon our tables, may not be out of place. Some 

 of these, if not all, may be classed under the head of garden 

 fruit ; yet simply naming them may not be regarded as a tres- 

 pass committed upon the particular province of another com- 

 mittee. Among the sorts which may be mentioned are the 

 raspberry and the blackberry. Of the former, which is a very 

 palatable fruit, choice specimens might be cultivated in our 

 garden lots. To preserve and perpetuate the vines some care 

 is needed, but in the gathering time none will regret the pains- 

 taking. With regard to the blackberry, although it grows 

 spontaneously in the fields and by the roadside, and is thence 

 supplied to the market, yet those of us who live in the villages 

 would find it a very convenient thing to cultivate a few good 

 vines of the taller species by our garden fences, whence we 



