REPORT 



OF THE 



COMMITTEE OlSr VEGETABLES. 



Your Committee hs;:; leave to present the following i-eport : 



111 making awards we were governed as far as possible by the 

 schedules under which the entries had been made. Vegerables that 

 ■were entered as the largest number of varieties, and the best exhibi- 

 tion, might perhaps rank as ten on number of varieties and but eight 

 i»u exhibiton, while another entry would rank but nine on the former 

 and ten on the latter, so in all cases the largest number of varieties 

 did not receive the award because they did not at tlie same tinii; excel 

 in quality. There were some few collections of garden vegetables where 

 effort was made to increase the number of varieties by adding some 

 inferior specimens ; aside from that the eighty entries of farm products 

 in this department were of uniform good quality, a credit to the pro- 

 ducer, and contributed largely to the great ol^ject of the fair. 



A careful review of these collections carries one back in imagina- 

 tion to tlie time when Adam, our great progenitor, was gardener of 

 Eden. His instructions were to dress the garden, which in time 

 brought lorth fruits of all kinds in abundance for the sustenance of 

 himself and small family. But he was soon driven from the garden 

 and ordained to " Till the eartli from whence he was taken," and eaiui 

 bread by the sweat of his brow. It was then agriculture had its ori- 

 gin, and down to the present time it has been an improving art. Un- 

 like the arts of luxury, agi'iculture has never been subject to any ret- 

 rograde revolutions ; being an occupation necessary for the existence 

 of mankind in any degree of comfort, it has always received their first 

 attention ; and no succeeding age has been more imperfect in the art 

 than that which preceded it. 



The lover of agricultural research deliglits to have its history down 

 through these intervening ages and note improvements which have 

 been made in farm products by cultivation. 

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