REPORTS. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GARDENS, 



AWARDma PREMIUMS tOR 1852. 



The Committee on Gardens now submit their Reporti During the year 

 they have visited the greenhouses, graperies, gardens and grounds of all 

 persons who notified the Committee that they wislied to be considered as 

 competitors for the prizes offered by the Society ; and also made calls at 

 the residences of several gentlemen, who had invited your Committee to 

 visit their gardens, without intending to compete for any prize. Your Com- 

 mittee have been gratified in observing everywhere, while on these excur- 

 sions, evidence of a continually increasing interest in rural pursuits, and a 

 constantly improving method of cultivation. The prizes offered by the So- 

 ciety have been too recently established, perhaps, to have yet exercised 

 much influence on the objects they were intended to promote ; but it is be- 

 lieved their beneficial effects have not, even now, been wholly unfelt. 



In making their awards your Committee have been controlled by the 

 Rules established by the Society, and, in some instances, where the require- 

 ments were not exactly complied with, or where circumstances in their 

 opinion rendered it advisable, have availed themselves of the discretionary 

 power granted them by these Rules, of allowing a gratuity instead of 

 awarding a prize. 



The several Committees of the Society have sometimes, though rarely, 

 awarded prizes to the gardeners of competitors, or other persons exhibiting 

 in their names, instead of to the owner or grower of the article exhibited. 

 This course is, in the opinion of your Committee, liable to objections, and 

 they have therefore felt it incumbent on them in all cases, to make their 

 awards directly to the owners of the gardens, &c., visited, instead of to 

 the persons having them in charge. It is desirable that there should be a 

 uniform rule upon this subject, to which adherence should be expected of 

 all of the Standing Committees of the Society. 



On the 25th of March your Committee visited the greenhouse of Mr. 

 Jonathan French of Roxbury, and the graperies of Messrs. Hovey & Co., 

 of Cambridge ; a very heavy fall of snow the night previous made the day 

 selected not very propitious to their design, and perhaps prevented, in some 

 degree, the objects examined from being seen under the most favorable 

 aspects. 



The greenhouse of Mr. French seemed to your Committee, in the com- 

 pleteness of all its details, and in convenience of arrangement, one of the 



