JREPORTS OF DELEGATES. 317 



This prflctice has led to the jjjciieral confusion of ideas which 

 prevails. The farmers, therefore, and not well-digested books, 

 are responsible for the false doctrines believed concerning scien- 

 tific agriculture. 



Let every farmer handle the subject as Isaac Walton did the 



frog which he impaled on his hook — "as though he loved it" — 



and a better understanding and more harmonious results will 



follow. 



George M. Atwater. 



NANTUCKET. 



Having been delegated to attend the fifth annual exhibition 

 of the Nantucket Agricultural Society, held on the 11th and 

 12tli of October last, I respectfully submit the following: — 



Leaving Boston on the morning of the 10th, I arrived at 

 Nantucket at lialf-past two, P. M. Through the kindness of 

 Capt. E. W. Gardner I enjoyed a ride over a considerable por- 

 tion of the central part of the island, during the afternoon. A 

 person from tlie " Continent," as the people here term the 

 main land, is peculiarly, and I may say painfully impressed 

 upon his first visit to the island. Nantucket has been famous 

 the world over for her enterprise in the whale fisheries. She 

 has been the means of bringing the world oilt of darkness into 

 lii'ht in more senses than one, and it is through no fault of hers 

 that that light has paled before various substitutes. The har- 

 vest was limited, and necessity, that prolific mother of inven- 

 tion, has furnished us with superior and cheaper illuminating 

 substances in coal gas and kerosene, while the end is not yet. 



A few years ago Nantucket, in the height of her prosperity, 

 fitted out annually about twenty whaling ships. This year she 

 fits out but five or six. This having been the main interest and 

 business of the island, the result is to be anticipated. A few 

 hulks of whale ships lay at her wharves, seemingly for no other 

 end than to see which shall go to decay the sooner. Store- 

 houses are tenantless and empty. The enterprise of the 

 inhabitants has departed. Grass literally grows in her street?. 



After the decadence of the whaling business, the Cahfornia 

 fever broke out, and its influence upon, the island was very 



40* 



