REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 265 



We hope the day is not distant when her absent sons may 

 return ; her commercial prosperity be revived ; her harbor 

 be filled with sails ; her soil be covered with thriving farms, 

 gardens and woodlands ; and her people be rejoiced again in the 

 possession of all that once gave them wealth and strength, 

 enterprise and fame, and made the happiness of their island- 

 home. 



In the time of her prosperity, Nantucket gave light and 

 comfort to many thousand homes upon the main. In the time 

 of her adversity, may her citizens, like the Israelites of old, 

 when darkness was over all the land of Egypt, have light in 

 their dwellings, and peace and hope in their hearts ! 



Charles C. Sewall. 



MARTHA'S VINEYARD. 



The Martha's Vineyard Society held its third annual fair 

 and cattle show on the day appointed by the law — fifteenth of 

 October. I was present most of the time on that day as well 

 as the succeeding one. The display of neat cattle, consisting of 

 fat animals, working oxen, milch cows, and bulls, was much 

 larger, amounting to nearly a hundred head, than at any for- 

 mer exhibition ; the same remark will apply to sheep, the 

 production of which is commanding increased attention. The 

 introduction of a grade of the Cotswold and Leicester from Ver- 

 mont has increased the island stock both in size and quantity 

 of wool. The farmers depend much on the sale of wool and 

 store sheep to pay their cash expenses. The latter is in con- 

 stant demand from the continent where they are much prized, 

 and from three to five hundred are annually disposed of. 

 Flocks from abroad highly fed do not prosper on the lean pas- 

 tures of the Vineyard. There is a wide difference among our 

 farmers whether sheep conduce to the preservation of pasture 

 lands, many holding that by their close feeding the sweet and 

 finer grasses are destroyed, but all agree that for tillage they 

 afford a valuable preparation. There was a great variety of 

 samples of Indian corn, and of fine quality. Wheat growing 



