REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 321 



MARTHA'S VINEYARD. 



According to my appointment as the delegate from the State 

 Board of Agriculture, I attended the cattle show and fair of 

 the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society at West Tisbury, 

 on the 16th and 17th days of October. During the limited 

 time I remained there, I improved such opportunities as were 

 in my power to examine the natural and agricultural resources 

 of the Island, and of comparing its present and past condition ; 

 such observations being in my judgment of more general benefit 

 and interest than a bare description of the festival which brings 

 us together on such occasions. 



The Island of Martha's Vineyard (originally called Martin's 

 Vineyard), was discovered in 1G02 by Bartholomew Gosnold, 

 and settled in 1642 by Thomas Mayhew, a London merchant of 

 high standing. It lies about five or six miles from the main 

 land, and is divided into three townships, Edgartown, Tisbury 

 and Chilmark ; it is of irregular shape, about twenty-one miles 

 long, and from five to ten miles wide. 



The geological features of the Island are very interesting. 

 On the western and northern parts the surface is broken, 

 frequently rising to elevations one hundred and fifty feet above 

 the level of the ocean, while between these are beautiful valleys 

 covered with a thick growth of capital pasture grasses, or 

 producing good crops, with manure and skilful cultivation. 

 These pastures have a clay formation which becomes deeply cov- 

 ered with diluvium towards the interior. Immense quantities 

 of granite, graywacke and sienite boulders lie scattered on the 

 surface and on the beach, and occasionally in excavations ; 

 pebbles of quartz, porphery and feldspar are found, all of which 

 must have been borne from the main land. To the east and 

 south, stretches a vast plain — occasionally broken by small 

 valleys, — of diluvium or drift, alight and rather unpromising 

 soil, covered largely with " the little chincapin " or shrub 

 oaks and other stunted shrubbery. Mr. Emerson in his valua- 

 ble work on the Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, says of this 

 oak: " The bitterness of the bark shows that it abounds in 

 tannin, and it might doubtless be advantageously used by the 

 tanner, as the small branches of most of the oaks are in Europe. 

 Where this little oak constitutes the principal growth, it might 



