80 



petition or entries ; and the amount appropriated for this pur- 

 pose was expended in gratuities. 



Committee — Fred. D. Burnham, George D. Glover, Isaiah 

 A. Rogers, Alfred Osgood. 



VEGETABLES. 



The exhibition of Vegetables was one of the largest and 

 best ever mads by the Society. It was not till 1835, seven- 

 teen years after the institution of the Society, that any men- 

 tion is made in the Transactions, of such an exhibition. This 

 occurs incidentally in a report on Fruits and Flowers, and re- 

 fers mainly to the " vegetable marrow squash," then just in- 

 troduced here. The writer. Dr. Andrew Nichols, says : 

 "This excellent squash ought to be generally known and cul- 

 tivated by farmers. Great care must be taken to prevent it 

 from mixing with the blue African squash, with which it is 

 much disposed to amalgamate and lose, in great increase of 

 size, its peculiarly valuable properties." ITiirty-three years 

 have elapsed and this delicious product has become a general 

 favorite, maintaining all its good qualities and purity by careful 

 cultivation. The raising of vegetables both for the table and 

 live stock has become quite common with the farmers of Es- 

 sex, and constitutes with some of them a special branch of 

 field husbandry. 



Whoever has given attention from year to year to this de- 

 partment of our Show, must have noticed a growing interest 

 in it, and a corresponding increase of contributors. This in- 

 terest has been manifested not only by those who have visited 

 the halls of exhibition, but by the cultivators, who have with 

 commendable pride and public spirit, and at considerable 



