426 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



MIDDLESEX. 



Report of the Committee. 



When we take into consideration the vast amount of vege- 

 tables consumed as food, both by man and beast, we think the 

 importance of their extensive culture can scarcely be over- 

 estimated. Your committee, therefore, are highly gratified in 

 being able to state that the display at the society's room on 

 this occasion, notwithstanding the protracted and severe 

 drought which prevailed during the season just past, and which 

 must have retarded their growth to a considerable degree, will 

 compare favorably with the exhibitions we have had on pre- 

 vious years. The display of potatoes, well-grown ones too, has 

 seldom, if ever, been excelled within our recollection. More 

 beautiful specimens of beets, turnips, parsnips, carrots, and 

 squashes we do not often see. In view of these facts, your 

 committee are unanimously of the opinion that there are culti- 

 vators in Middlesex County who understand the advantages to 

 be derived from deep ploughing, manuring well, and in giving 

 their crops clean cultivation. Noxious weeds should never be 

 allowed to grow among vegetables or plants of any sort. Stir- 

 ring the earth often is not only advantageous in destroying 

 weeds, but especially is that mode of treatment necessary on 

 the approach and during the prevalence of such a season as we 

 have just experienced. Not that your committee arc of the 

 opinion that frequent stirring enables the soil more readily to 

 absorb the dews, — which idea has been advanced by some indi- 

 viduals, — but that keeping the surface of the earth light cuts 

 off in a measure the communication between the earth and the 

 atmosphere, checks evaporation, and, as it were, compels Moth- 

 er Earth to retain her moisture much longer than when she re- 

 mains undisturbed. More on that head we should like to say; 

 and, to do any tiling like justice to the subject, we could not 

 say less. 



Asa Clement, for the Committee. 



Coxcokd, October, 1854. 



