154 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



supplied with fruit in this way, and it requires a vast amount 

 of enthusiasm to follow it up for a very great length of time. 



It is highly desirable that competitors should take a little 

 more pains in arranging their fruits for premium. The rules 

 are plain, simple and easily understood ; but, for some reason, 

 little or no attention is paid to them by many exhibitors, and 

 then complaint is made that the committees are incompetent, 

 unfair and partial in making up their awards. If a rule re- 

 quires twelve specimens to compete for a particular premium, 

 plates will be found with from eleven to half a bushel, the com- 

 petitor seeming to think that half a bushel is certainly twelve, 

 and that the committee can discard the surplus, which they 

 have no right to do. Mr. Heath's Delaware grapes, for instance, 

 were very fine, and had he arranged his best six clusters as the 

 rule specified, he would, without doubt, have taken the firs^ 

 premium ; and so in a number of other cases. 



Premiums ought to be offered for specific things, because they 

 are desirable and worthy of encouragement. If a premium is 

 not offered for any particular display, the inference should be, 

 unless it is something new, that the society do not care to en- 

 courage it. The mere piling up of bushels of fruit does not 

 make an instructive or even interesting exhibition. The society 

 might, perhaps, extend its offers so as to cover more ground, 

 and then allow but a very small amount for gratuities. 



Jabez Fisher, Chairman. 



CRANBERRY MEADOWS. 



MARSHFIELD. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



Your Committee on the Preparation of Cranberry Meadows 

 have attended to the duty assigned them, by visiting the mead- 

 ows of those who have made entries, the premiums for which 

 are to be awarded in the years of 1871 and 1872. The names 

 of those persons who have made entries are as follows : Martin 

 Bryant, of Pembroke ; John Harlow, of Marshfield j Gifford & 



