70 



Mary A. Stark, South Danvers, what-not, 50 cts. 



Mrs. Abi Osborne, vase of wax flowers, $1 



Mary P. Chaplin, Danvers, worsted- work in fi-ame, $1 



Maria Estes, South Danvers, what-not, 50 cts. 



FRANCIS BAKER, 



For the Committee. 



•FLOWERS. 



In examining and passing upon • the articles shown in this 

 department, your Committee have met ynth no small share of 

 perplexity. We are well aware that the partisans of strict 

 utihty might think it a matter of too little importance for a 

 committee to consume two or three hours over, but in fact, the 

 proper awarding of the sum of twenty-five dollars among one 

 hundred and tweny-five competitors, and this on the score of 

 simple merit alone, is not unattended with embarrassments, 

 whether it be in an exhibition of dahlias or some mg,tter of 

 much greater significance. These difficulties are two-fold ; for 

 in part they arise by the excessive number of entries, and in 

 part by the very limited amount at the disposal of the judges ; 

 making it necessary to exclude all but the very best articles 

 from consideration, and again, to give to these such gratuities 

 as arc often unsatisfactory, and in fact, seem entirely trivial. 



This illustrates the position of your Committee in the pres- 

 ent instance. The evil of needlessly dividing lots of articles 

 for the sake of entering them under different names, and thus 

 obtaining more tickets of admission, was fully exemplified on 



