VEGETABLE COMMITTEe's REPORT. 43 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON VEGETABLES. 



For the Year 18G2. 

 BY DANIEL T. CURTIS, CHAIRMAN". 



In fulfilling their duties to the Society for another year, your Committee aie 

 not unmindful of the importance of the subject committed to their chiirize, or 

 the impossibility of doing full justice to it in the limits allotted to their official 

 record. In submitting this, their report, therefore, they propose to note promi- 

 nent fncts which have fallen under their observation, while they must neces- 

 sarily pass over many minor details which are of interest, chiefly to the scien- 

 tific horticulturist. Though there is little scope perhaps, for the indulgence of 

 taste and fancy, in the culture of vegetables designed simply for food, yet they 

 are happy to state that the tables allotted to this department of the Society's 

 Exhibitions, during the past season, have presented substantial attractions to 

 the practical public mind, as indicating the steady progress of utilitarian ideas, 

 and the interest which is taken in thise agricultural itnprovements which 

 minister to the comfort and welfare of the masses. They are gratified to note 

 also, that while these exhibitions have developed marked improveuient in pro- 

 duction and quality of culinary vegetables, they have also led to a more ex- 

 tended competition for the Society's premiums, which is worthy of all praise, 

 and promises the most favorable results in eliciting a wider range of experi- 

 ment, scientific investiiration, and a comparison of the varied experience 

 incident to peculiarities of soil and modes of cultivation. Though many on 

 our current list of exhibitors are amateurs in this branch of horticultine, and 

 have entered this field of competition for the first time, during the past season, 

 they have been most coidially welcomed by the Committee, and however some 

 of them may lack the extended facilities and years of experience, which 

 favor the operations of older contributors, their enterprising and remarkably 

 successful efforts have been none the less valuable or worthy of attention. 

 All who have contributed to the stock of interest and information in this 

 department are entitled to the thanks of the Society and the public. 



While the past season his not been noted by the introduction of any new 

 varieties of standard vegetables, it has been one of very successful and exten- 

 sive production, and crops of all kinds have been satisfactory and remunera- 

 tive. Tlie specimens submitted to this Board have been uniformly, as well as 

 in the average, fine, healthy, and well developed, such as which, with nature 

 and art comoined, seldom fail to reward the industrious tiller of the soil. 



Those of our gardeners who have made it a specialty have brought the 

 tomato to a high degree of perfection, and most of its numerous varieties have 

 been cultivated during the past year with great success. In their last Annual 

 Report your Committee alluded to the introduction of the new French Tree 

 Tomato, and its claims. These have been extensively and thoroughly tested 

 in this vicinity, since that time, and though its fruit is large, finely colored, 



