10 MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



lation has not slept, that industry has not labored in vain. 

 This is made manifest by the number of new orchards that are 

 annually planted, the acres of peat and bog meadows that are 

 annually reclaimed, and the beautiful and substantial stone 

 walls that enclose fields and mowing lots, in which the material 

 was once embedded and could be removed only by the applica- 

 tion of gunpowder. 



The committee have awarded the first premium on farms to 

 that of George Pierce, of West Cambridge. This farm consists 

 of about forty acres. The soil, except about four acres of 

 swamp, is of a sandy loam. Two acres of this swamp has 

 been cultivated, for the first time, the present season ; the re- 

 mainder is thickly overgrown with white birch, sprung from 

 the stumps of a previous growth. The farm is cultivated for 

 the express purpose of supplying vegetables and fruits for the 

 market in Boston. There are two peach orchards on the farm, 

 one of which contains about eight hundred trees on three acres 

 and a half. These were all procured from New Jersey, and 

 were set out in the spring of 184G. Many of them have borne 

 fruit. The spaces between the rows are planted with melons, 

 beans, and cauliflowers. The beans had been gathered in be- 

 fore the examination of the committee, and the vines thrown 

 around the roots of the peach trees. The soil of this orchard 

 was in a high state of cultivation before the putting in of the 

 trees, in 1846, but has since received no manure, except a 

 shovel-full placed in each of the melon hills, twelve feet apart, 

 at the time of planting. Some acres produce tomatoes, on 

 others are now growing celery, cauliflowers, cabbages, spinach, 

 corn, potatoes, and (what the committee have nowhere else 

 seen cultivated for the market,) dandelions. In the judgment 

 of the committee, there were about three acres covered with 

 this vegetable, (which generally passes for a worthless weed,) 

 and which affords a rich return for the labor and expense of 

 cultivation. A large portion of this farm has produced three 

 crops this season : first, radishes and early peas, second, pota- 

 toes and cucumbers, and next, celery, cabbages, &C. The fol- 

 lowing statement of the expenses and value of the produce Avas 

 given to the committee, viz : — 



