Reports of Committees. 21 



ONE ACRE OATS 34 ENTRIES. 



For the best one acre of Oats, Henry Werden of Richmond, S7 00 



2d do., J. H. Coon of Sheffield, f> 00 



3d do,, H. T. Candee of Sheffield. 5 00 



4th do., W. H. Sprague of Alford, 4 00 



5th do., William O. Curtis of Lenox. 3 00 



Gth do., H. D. Palmer of Stockbridge, 2 00 



BARLEY 8 ENTRIES. 



All good pieces Some fine crops of this grain were so intermixed with 

 oats as to properly come under the head of messlings. We award : 



Tor best acre of Barley, P. M. Shaylor of Lee, $6 00 



2d do., Dyer Wait of Egremont, ' 5 00 



3d do., J. H. Lowrey of Egremont, i 00 



4th do., William A. Bunce of Alford, 2 00 



GRASS — 1 1 ENTRIES. 



Your Committee saw very few really first-rate grass crops, and we can- 

 not be Mind to the fact that our Berkshire meadows are every year grow- 

 ing more heavily stocked with " plants out of place." Buttercups and 

 daisies may add to the picturesque effect of a landscape, but to the agricul- 

 tural eye they are vile weeds. The fundamental error in the management 

 of our meadows lies in imperfect drainage. Water is allowed to become 

 stagnant, and stagnant water is as injurious to plants as carbonic acid is 

 to animals. In most cases, then, to improve our meadows to any great ex- 

 tent, we must thoroughly underdrain. This done, if it be not advisable 

 to plow and cultivate for two or three years to destroy weeds, irrigation — 

 a neglected art here, will have a magical effect. In the poetical language of 

 Phillip Pusey "a slight film of water trickling over the surface, rouses the 

 sleeping grass, tinges it with living green, amidst the snows and frosts, and 

 brings forth a luxuriant crop in early spring, just when most needed, while 

 other meadows are still bare and brown." A water meadow is the triumph 

 of agricultural art, almost changing as it does the very seasons- 



For best 3 acres of Cultivated Grass, Luther S. Butler of Lenox, $6 00 



2d do., Benton L. Stoddard of Alford, 5 00 



3d do., Robert A. Potts of Egremont, 4 00 



4th do., Williara O. Curtis of Lenox, 3 00 



GARDENS T ENTRIES. 



There are three distinct classes of gardens brought to the notice of our 

 Committees, each of which must be judged by the standard of its class, 

 rather than by any fixed ideal to which all classes can be compared. 



First the farmers' garden proper -the garden moderate in size, and 

 modest in appliances, which is expected to furnish for the family use a 

 sufficient supply of vegetables, not probably in very great variety at any 

 one time, but of good quality, and judiciously selected of such sorts as shall 

 givea pleasant variety, at least in succession, and shall produce moderately 

 of some desirable esculent from as early as may be in the spring till the 

 severe frosts of autumn. In such a garden the indispensable vegetables are 

 only those generally considered standard and best, peas, sweet corn, beans, 

 tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, &c, but at least a few of the rarer and more 

 delicate vegetables ought to be grown, such as celery, egg-plants and 

 cauliflowers. The success of a garden depends very largely upon its manage- 

 ment all through the season, which makes it exceedingly difficult to judge 

 of its merits by a single visit for besides the neatness of its keeping, and 

 the comparative earliness and excellence of its growth, we must consider 



