FARMS. 89 



land, or increase the production of that before taken up. So 

 they have gone on, and have produced crops, — particularly 

 cabbages, — which would do no discredit to the best soil in the 

 county. 



"We learn from Colonel Stone, that they have generally paid 

 for the .land, and seem encouraged to go on with its improve- 

 ment. Their interest in the soil stimulates them to industry — 

 they improve the leisure hours, which might otherwise be 

 misspent, in increasing the productiveness and value of tkeir 

 possessions, — their interest in our country and its institutions 

 is strengthened, and the effect on them, and on other citizens, 

 is every way salutary and beneficial. It seems probable that 

 a similar plan of making the operatives in manufactories 

 interested in the land, might be advantageously adopted in 

 many instances. It would give to such establishments a class 

 of laborers that could be relied on, at the same time that it 

 would afford to the laborers themselves a strong stimulus to 

 faithfulness. 



In Dorchester the Committee visited Hon. Marshall P. 

 Wilder, president of the society. Our visit was on the last 

 day of August, a season of the year which enabled us to examine 

 with advantage the results of his extensive and long-continued 

 labors in the production of fruits. It would have required 

 more time than we had at our disposal to particularly notice all 

 his operations, and we therefore confined our observations to 

 the homestead, comprising thirteen acres, almost exclusively 

 devoted to friiit and ornamental trees and plants. In the fruit 

 department, the collection of pears, and in that of ornamental 

 plants, the camellia particularly attracted our attention, as 

 both have a reputation second to no similar collections in the 

 country. It is well known that to these Mr. Wilder has devoted 

 a long period of study and care, and is still engaged Avitli the 

 same earnestness that has characterized his previous efforts. 



The collection of pears embraces about eight hundred varie- 

 ties. Of these he has twenty-five hundred trees specially 

 designed to produce fruit for market, and they are grafted 

 with the most approved sorts for that purpose. As an evidence 

 of Mr. Wilder's views in regard tosucli sorts, we may state that 

 he has worked about 400 Beurre d'Anjou, 200 BufTum, 200 

 12 



