10 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



JULT 14. |s4l. 



who ciiised the Gap in the Wall," said farmer 

 Whiteacro. EVELYN. 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 The Committee on Kruiis recommend the follow. 

 u\g premiums to be awarded for the cn.suing- year. 



Apples. — For the best Summer apples, not less 

 than one dozen, a premium of 

 For tlio best Autumn do. do. do. 

 For the best Winter do. do. do. 

 Pears. — For the best Summer pears, not loss 

 than one dozen, a premitun of 

 For the best Autuuin do. do. do. 

 For the best Winter do. do. do. 

 Cherries. — For the best cherries, not loss than 

 one quart, a premium of 

 Next best, do. do. do. 

 Peaches. — For the best peaches, open culture, 

 not less than one dozen, a premium of 

 Best do. under gfiass. 

 For the second best open culture. 

 Plums. — For the best plums, not less than one 

 quart, a premium of 

 Next best, 

 Grapes. — For the best foreign grapes, under 

 glass, a premium of 

 Best do. do. oj)cn culture. 



Best native do. 

 Apricots. — For the best apricots, not less than 

 one dozen, a premium of 



jVectarines For the best nectarines, not less 



than one dozen, a premium of 

 Quinces. — For the best quinces, not less than 

 one dozen, a premium of 



Gooseberrita For the best gooscbefries, not 



less than one quart, a preinium of 

 Raspberries. — For the beat mspberriea, not less 



than one quart, a premium of 

 Strawberries. — For the best strawberries, not 

 less than one quait, a premium of 

 Next best do. do. do. 

 Currants. — For the best currants, not leBs than 



one quart, a premium of 

 Melons. — For the largest and best water melon, 

 a premium of 

 For the largest and best musk melon, 

 .Mso the i'urlhor sum of twentyfive dollars, to 

 be awarded in gratuities — 



$150 



K'ells Premium^ 



The committee also offer the Wells Premiums 

 for apples, the produce of seedling trees, which 

 Hhall have boon brought into notice since the year 

 1829. 



For the best shimmer apples, as above, not 

 lews than one dozen, a premium of $2.% 



For the best autumn apples, as above, not 

 leas than one dozen, a premium of 25 



For the best winter apples, as above, not less 

 than one dozen, a premium of 25 



Premiums to be awarded to the members of the 

 Society only ; and where the claims are not of suf- 

 ficient merit no premium will be awarded. This 

 will be strictly adhered to, particularly in regard 

 to the Wells premiums, where no premium should 

 be awarded but in full evidence of its superiority 

 »ver Bomo well known fruit of the season. 



BENJ. V. FRENCH, Chairman. 



Boston, June V.>, 1841. 



PRE.\nUMS FOR VEGETABLES. 

 The Committee on Vegetables would recommend 



the following premiums for 1841 : 



For Asparagus — earliest and be^^t four bunches, $5 

 ' Beans — Large Lima, best two quarts, 3 

 ' Cauliflowers — finest four heads, 3 

 ' Broccoli — finest four heads, 3 

 ' Celery — finest twelve roots, 4 

 ' Corn — finest and earliest dozen, 3 

 ' Cucumbers — best pair hefore the first Sat- 

 urday in June, 5 

 ' Lettuce — finest and earliest six heads, 3 

 ' Pens — earliest and best peck, 5 

 ' Potatoes — earliest peck, 5 

 ' Rhubarb — finest 12 spears, ,5 

 ' Squashes — finest of the season, 3 

 ' Brussels Sprouts — finest, y 



$50 



The Committee would say that the premiums 

 lierctoforc oflTered for various other articles have 

 been withdrawn, as there were so few specimens 

 offered. The Committee will also give gratuities 

 for specimens of any new or valuable kinds. 



SAM'L POND, Chairman. 



April ii, 1841. 



(XT^eJOO PREMIUM. 



At a meeting of the .Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, held June 19th, 1841 — 



Voted, That llie Society offer a premium of ooe 

 hundred dollars for a successful mode of destroy- 

 ing the ('urculio. 



Mr Haggerstofl stated that he was authorized to 

 oflFer the like sura of one hundred dollars for said 

 object. 



Voted, to accept for said purpose, the liberal 

 offer made through Mr H., and that the whole sub- 

 ject be under the direction of the Fruit Committee. 

 Attest, E. M. RICHARDS, Rec. Sec'ry. 



ers of men, and to destroy their constitutions; and 

 it makes one sick at heart to notice the direful rava- 

 ges of these practices upon the energy and health 

 of ciiiniiiunity. The lovely and beautiful are al- 

 most every where pointed out as the victims of 

 disease. The noble youth, fired by laudable am- 

 bition, after a series of preparations, just as he is 

 about to enter the field of usefulness, where he 

 would be the pride of his friends and an ornament 

 to his country, is stricken down by some fatal mala- 

 dy. But it is not because "death loves a shining 

 mark," that such fearful inroads aie thus made up- 

 on nature's elit*, but it is because, under the influ- 

 ence of our degenerating habits, powerful minds 

 are not lodged in bodies suitable to sustain their 

 operations. 



\V e, as a people, are constantly violating the 

 plain and obvious indications of nature, by using 

 improper food improperly prepared, unsuitable 

 clothing miserably adjusted, and in a thousand 

 other ways. But nature is not thus to be tnfli-d 

 with with impunity ; she may be tardy to inflict 

 penalties for her violated laws, but she is sure and 

 inexorable. — Gardiner Spertalor. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 



The article upon this subject on the first page, 

 from the N. E. Farmer, we find in the Maine Far- 

 mer, accompanied by bouic excellent remarks by 

 the editor of that paper. 



In these days of improvement, nothing cries 

 louder for reform than physical education. The 

 evils arising from the habits and fashions of com- 

 munity in respect to physical training, do indeed 

 strike at the foundation of our moral and political 

 institutions; tiiey are fast making us an effeminate, 

 luxurious and sickly people; and we can no more 

 expect to find strong, efficient minds, capable of 

 contendinir successfully with ignorance and error, 

 in effeminate and sickly bodies, thin we can hope 

 to sec powerful, athletic bodies, which are sustam- 

 cd by iusuflicient and innutritious food. History 

 affords us numerous exnrnplcs that the moral and 

 intellectual powers of nations and individuals arc 

 strong in proportion to the soundness of their phy- 

 sical condition, other things being the same. Tlie 

 ancients were aware of this, and modelled their in- 

 stitutions with direct reference to the motto, "mens 

 Sana in corpore sano" — a sound mind in n sound 

 body. 



But in these days of physical degeneracy, it is 

 truly appalling to look abroad on society and ob- 

 serve the numerous engines of destruction which 

 under the influence of habit, fashion and indul 

 grncc, ure ojierating to break down the bodily pow 



From the Farmer's Cslinct. 



BLIGHT— MILDEW. 

 I have been a pood deal interested in looking 

 over Col, Su'ilh'.s article in the last number of the 

 Cabinet, and would before this have said so, if an 

 unusual press of business had not deprived me of 

 the necessary leisure. 



The wheat crops of the middle stales have of 

 latter years become so precarious, that every ra- 

 tional suggestion as the cause and remedy, do- 

 serves the attention of the farmer. Our wheat 

 and rye and Indian corn, constitute, emphaiically, 

 the staff of life ; and when there is so widely ex- 

 tended a failure as there was of the rye in 18.")(), 

 and so serious an one as there has several times 

 been more recently of wheat, every person who 

 finds his garners empty when he had hoped to have 

 them well filled, feels that the subject comes homo 

 to his own individual interest and comfort, in a 

 manner that is of no trifling consequence. 



Col. Smith thinks that the growth of grass in 

 our wheat fields, is the great cause of the mildew 

 which so frequently and so suddenly prostrates the 

 hopes of the farmer. He talks of the "elements 

 of vegetable vigor and vitality" — the " elaboration" 

 of sap to the grain — and the difference of tempe- 

 rature between the soil covered with a coat of 

 grass and that which is exposed to the sun, &c. 

 Now all this I don't profess to understand much 

 about, being a plain mntter-of-fact man, and litc- 

 ! rally eating my bread in the sweat of my face : but 

 I acknowledge 1 have so many and strong old- 

 j fashioned partialities in favor of sowing grass seeds 

 . over our fields of winter grain, that I am reluctant 

 I to yield it to any theory, unless It shall be susliiin- 

 I ed by generally acknowledged larts. Now, I put 

 it to every man who has raised wheat or rye for 

 the last dozen years — what has been his oxperi- 

 j cnce .' 



j Last season, and in the harvest of 1829, we all 

 ^ know there were extensive failures of the wheat 

 crop, owing to the depredations of the fly and the 

 prevalence of mildews. In 18.'59, my wheat — be- 

 tween the first and last sowing of which in the au- 

 tumn of 1838, there was a difference of tenor 

 twelve days — was all exceedingly injured by the 



