50 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON VEGETABLES 



For the Year 1857. 



BY DANIEL T. CURTIS, CHAIRMAN. 



Your Committee, in presenting their annual report, cannot but express 

 their gratification at the continued interest manifested by the members of 

 the Society in this department. Many gardens have been visited by them, 

 in which every desirable variety of esculent vegetables was represented, 

 in all the stages of luxuriant growth. Specimens of these have not always 

 been found on the tables at the public exhibitions, owing principally to the 

 great difficulty and expense of transportation. The contemplated change 

 from weekly to monthly exhibitions will doubtless add additional stimulus 

 to cultivators, and afford more time for the preparation and arrangement of 

 their interesting and instructive collections. The generous competition 

 fostered by such exhibitions will continue to add largely to the vegetable 

 wealth of the community. 



The interest manifested in the cultivation of the Chinese yam and 

 "Chinese sugar cane has extended over almost every portion of the United 

 States. The former has proved productive in light warm soils, yielding 

 tubers weighing from two to three pounds each, and from eighteen to 

 twenty -four inches in length. We have seen fine tubers grown at Nan- 

 tucket; and the splendid specimens exhibited in November last, by 

 A. Andros, of Taunton, are fresh in the recollection of all. The mere 

 profit of its cultivation is yet an open question, which cannot be decided 

 until a more extended trial has furnished the data necessary for its 

 solution. 



Numerous reports from all sections of the country show that the varieties 

 of the Chinese sugar cane, Sorghum saccharatum, are well adapted for 

 our soils. Of its utility, as furnishing the source for the public and private 

 manufacture of syrups, there can be no doubt ; the researches of chemists 

 and microscopists prove that a kind of sugar closely allied to, if not identical 

 with, cane sugar, may be obtained from it with ease in our southern States. 

 The recent travels of Dr. Barth in Central Africa raise the question 

 whether it may not be worth cultivating as a grain, independent of its 

 saccharine qualities; the Sorghum saccharatum, the Negro millet, and a 

 kind of maize, form nearly the whole food of many tribes, and are held in 

 equal estimation by them. In districts where it arrives at maturity, it will 

 doubtless add an important product for the food both of man and animals. 



There were some squashes exhibited of such promising excellence that 

 the Committee wish to say a few words concerning them. The Hubbard 

 squash, exhibited by James J. H. Gregory of Marblehead, as a new variety, 

 did not attract much attention, although the good qualities claimed for it 

 led to an early trial of its merits. The size and form is about that of the 

 original Marrow squash ; its color is a dark dull green ; its shell is very 



