SECRETARY'S REPORT. 225 



fruit is not now confined to the few, but that it is becoming 

 general and extensive throughout the community. 



The peach and cherry seem to be fast leaving us, the former 

 from that insidious disease, the yellows ; the latter, either from 

 some injury to the trees from the winter, or from the ravages of 

 the black aphis, or from both, is fast going to destruction. 

 There does not appear to be any certain or efficient, remedies 

 for the complaints of either the peach or the cherry. The 

 extinction of either one would be quite a loss ; and we hope 

 that some remedy may be found that will save them, as wo now 

 have so few varieties that we cannot even afford to lose one of 

 them. 



The Report was accepted. 



Mr. Perkins moved to abolish the requirement of the Board 

 that grain and root crops should be weighed by competitors for 

 premiums offered by the county fairs. 

 ■ The motion was specially assigned for Saturday, the 28th. 



Saturday, Jan. 28th. 



The Board met on Saturday according to adjournment. The 

 subject first under discussion was the motion of Mr. Perkins, of 

 the Berkshire Society, to discontinue the requirements on the 

 part of the Board, whereby the societies are compelled to cause 

 crops entered for premiums to be accurately weighed or 

 measured. 



Tlie chief reason urged for the repeal of the requirement was 

 that it was a source of inconvenience and expense, and that the 

 result was, after all, unsatisfactory. 



Mr. Moore, of the Middlesex Society produced a copy of the 

 reports of the Berkshire Society, as returned to the Board, 

 printed only in a newspaper form, and showed that they could 

 be of little use to the State. No detailed statements appeared 

 as to how crops were raised, no estimate, even, of the expenses, 

 no reliable data, which could serve for the instruction of 

 farmers in other parts of the Commonwealth, or even in the 

 immediate vicinity where they were grown. Such returns were 

 not what the State had a right to expect. They could add 

 nothing exact and valuable to our stock of knowledge on the 

 subject. They could serve uo good purpose. 



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