VEGETABLES. 143 



usually exist between the producer and the planter, and keeps a 

 wholesome responsibility within easy access of the purchaser. 



For the Committee, 



James J. H. Gregory. 



NANTUCKET. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



In making our awards the present year, we would say that in 

 no year since the formation of the society has the duty been 

 more agreeable or satisfactory than in this, from the fact that 

 the display of vegetables uniformly excelled in size and quality 

 the exhibitions of former years, thus showing a decided improve- 

 ment in the method of cultivation among our farmers. It will 

 be gratifying to our agriculturists to know that it was the opin- 

 ion of the State delegate, and also of those friends who visited 

 us from abroad, that our show of vegetables cannot be excelled 

 by any similar exhibition in New England, expressing at the 

 same time a very favorable opinion of the capabilities of our soil 

 when properly managed. 



In view of the increasing importance of agriculture as a means 

 of subsistence in the county, your Committee would offer a few 

 suggestions relative to a method of fertilizing the soil not here- 

 tofore practised among us. We refer more particularly to the 

 ploughing in of green crops. The scarcity and consequent high 

 price of manure on the island, creates an imperative demand 

 for some cheaper method of rendering the land productive, and 

 your Committee believe that such a method will be found in the 

 practice above referred to. According to the best information 

 which the Committee have been able to obtain, the practice has 

 been attended with entire success in those sections where it has 

 been adopted, and should like results be obtained here, it would 

 certainly be of great importance to our agricultural interests. 



In order to convey to our farmers some idea of the practical 

 utility of this system, the Committee would here introduce a 

 statement made to one of their number by a gentleman from Illi- 

 nois, who visited the island in the summer of 1866 and 1867, 

 and spent some time in looking over the land and noticing the 

 capabilities of the soil, and being himself a practical farmer, his 



