84 REPORT ON ESSAYS. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ESSAYS. 



The Committee on Essays, Report: 

 That thej have received and carefully examined five Essays on diff- 

 erent subjects offered for the premium. They regret that there has 

 been no competition on the same subject. The committee have there- 

 fore had the more difficult task to estimate each Essay by its own in- 

 trinsic merits — to ask themselves this question, does this Essay fur- 

 nish information not before generally known to the Farmers of Essex 

 County, of sufficient value to justify the expeiicViture, (the premium 

 and cost of printing) which must be incurred if published ? Before 

 answering this question it became necessary to consider what Essays 

 under consideration should be ? The answer to this last question is 

 obviously this. They should be manuals containing all the necessa- 

 ry information to enable the inexperienced to cultivate and manage 

 successfully whatever may be the subject of the Essay. Tried by 

 this standard the Essay by the President of tliis Society, John W. 

 Proctor, on the "cultivation of onions" comes nearly up to our ideal 

 model of what it should be. 



David Choate's Essay on the culture of Cranberries, although not 

 all that could be desired, contains perhaps as much information as 

 could be expected from any one in the present state of this new and 

 certainly important enterprize. The cultivation of the Cranberry is 

 yet in its infancy. More experiments and longer time, to prove the 

 durability of success, are wanting. We see no good reason why the 

 Cranberries may not be as much improved as Strawberries have been 

 by culture, and that ere long either on high and dry, or on low and 

 wet grounds they will be largely cultivated and add no inconsidera- 

 ble amount to the wealth of Essex County. 



W. D. Northend, in his Essay on the Pear Tree, discusses in a 

 manner highly creditable to himself and instructive to cultivators, 

 another too much neglected source of wealth and comfort, to this 

 community. The best varieties of the pear, which are successfully 

 cultivated in our midst, are certainly among the most delicious fruit 

 the earth produces. And such, every farmer, with a little labor, can 

 in a few years have in abundance. It is true that som.e young trees 

 will die, (and what animal or vegetable will not die ?) But let no 

 cultivator be discouraged by his losses. Let him try again, and if 

 one tree in twenty only should live and flourish, he will bo well re- 

 warded for his perseverance. 



