182 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



DECI'-.niURR I'J.IHas. 



AND gardener's JOURNAL. 



Boston, Wbdnesdat, Decembeb 12, 1838. 

 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL SOClETy. 



EXHIBITIO.V OK BITTER AND CHEESE. 



We are liappy to lay before our readers the Report of 

 the Comniiltee of the Massachusetts Agricultur.il Society 

 on Butter and Cheese offered for premium on the 4th 

 inst, at Quiuey Hall, Boston. The premiums were most 

 liberal— on Butler one of a $100— one of 50 ; one of 30. 

 On Cheese one of $50— one of 30. 



The prices at which the several jars of butter wliieh 

 obtained the first premium were sold were as follows, — 

 17 cts., 44, 43, 42, 41. 



The prices of the butter of tlic 2d premium were as 

 follows,— 41 cts , 38, 36, 35. 



The prices of the third premium butter were 37 cts., 

 33 1-3. 



Other lots of butter of a fine quality were sold at %'ery 

 good prices. Several firkins of butter containing more 

 than 100 lbs. each, from Horace Clapp of Homeville, 

 New Y«TK, were of a fine quality. Some tubs, however, 

 belonging to the same lot were injured, owing to some 

 imperfection in the manner of putting up. We have no 

 authority for the assertion but our own judgment, but had 

 it not been for this circumstalice we ean haidly doubt 

 that lliis lot of butter would have obtained the first pre- 



REPORT. 



The Committee of the Trustees of the Massaclmsetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture appointed to award 

 the premiums of the society for butter and cheese, exhib- 

 ited at Quincy Hall, December 4, 1838, Report— that 

 The whole amount of entries for butter was 13 



for dicese, old 2 



" new 9 11 



24 



This number is smaller than U6«:(l at these cxiiibitions, 

 although perhaps in point of quality the best butler and 

 cheese on this occasion were fully equal to tliat of former 

 exhibitions. 



Of the butter, one lot (entry Ko. 7) was disposed of by 

 the owner before the hour fixed for examination, and did 

 not therefore become a subject of trial. 



Of the remaining lots the committee found 



8 of good quality. 



2 partly good and part of fair or middling quality. 



1 part good and part ordinary or inferior. 



1 ordinary. 



12 



To lot No. 2, offered by Luther Chamberlain of West- 

 borough, Massachusetts, consisting of I'-i stone pots, the 

 committee had no hesitation in awarding; the first premi- 

 um of t)nc Hundred Dollars. 



To let No. 9, oflered by L. B. Hapgood of Shrewsbury, 

 Mass. consisting of 10 stone pots. The committee were 

 unanimous in awiirdiiig the second premium of I''ifiy 

 Dollars. 



To lot No. 1, offered by VV'illiam Bachop, of Barnet, 

 in Vermont, consisting of 7 tubs. The committee, after 

 some deliberation, awarded the third premium of Thirty 

 Dollars. 



To lot No 3, consisting of 8 tubs oficred by Nathan 

 Cushing of Woodstock, Veimont; a part was so nearly 

 equal to the last, that the committee hesitated in award- 

 ing the 3d premium until they ascertained Ihat the quality 

 of Mr Bachop's was more uniform. 



As to the origin of the various lots entered, there were 



7 lots from Vermont, 



4 " " Massachusetts, 

 1 " " N. Hampshire, 

 1 " " N. York. 



13 

 Of the cheese, consisting of cloven lots the committee 

 pronounced 8 lots to be of good qualitv, *' 



3 lots of fiiir quality. 



11 



To lot No. 1 of the old cheese, consisting of 11 cheeses, 

 from the dairy of David Lee of Barre, Massachusetts, 

 the committee, (after careful comparison with a very 

 good lot offered by Daniel Hunter of N.Braintrec, Mass.) 

 awarded the premium of Fifty Dollars. 



To lot No. 4. of the new -cheese, consisting of 10 

 cheeses, offered by Timothy Fisher of Burke, Vermont, 

 they awarded the premium of Thirty Dollars. 



The origin of the various lots of cheese was as follows, 

 viz : 



8 from Massachusetts, 



I from New Hampshire, 

 1 from Connecticut, 

 I from Vermont. 



11 



The committee acknowledge with thanks the assist- 

 ance in performing their duty of Messrs Edmund T. Hast- 

 ings of Boston, and L Hurd of Charlestown, also of 

 Messrs. 1. P. Davis, G. T. Winlhrop, and N. A. Thomp- 

 son of Boston, — and they would mt omit to mention the 

 very prompt liberality with which the use of the central 

 hall over the Quincy market was placed at their disposal 

 by Mr H. R. Kendal). 



It is matter of much regret and surprise that the com- 

 petition for the premiums offered by our Society is so 

 very limited in the numberof claimants. Unusual pains 

 have been taken to apprise the public. Many more than 

 the usual numberof the Society's premium lists have been 

 printed and distributed, advertisements have been repeat- 

 edly inserted in the N. E Fanner and in several news- 

 papeis; and the premiums are confessedly of the most 

 liberal amount. 



The public sale of tlie butter and cheese exhibited, 

 which took place on the 5th, by the high prices given, 

 also amply testifies the disposition of the public to aid the 

 society in encouraging and rewarding excellence in the 

 dairies of N. England. 



The documents herewith are the statements accompa- 

 nying the several claims and a list of the entries with the 

 remarks of the committee upon them. 

 For the Commiltee, 



JOSIAH aUmCY, Jr. 



Boston, Dec. 8, 1838. 



MULBERRY FF.VElt. 



This new disease has become quite epidemic and con- 

 tinues to rage violently. Wc cannot for our lives divine 

 any especial reason, why it should have buret out all at 

 once among us and so widely extend itself, excepting 

 that all the diseases of this character, (we moan those 

 brought on by speculation and avarice,) are highly conta- 

 gious. We trust it would not be deemed disrespectful to 

 the faculty, if we suggested that possibly the mulberry 

 doctors have themselves had some hand in creating and 

 aggravating the disorder with a view to their '"""*. It 

 is not for us to give any words of caution. Wo have not 

 the care of the public health ; but we think it advisable 

 for those, who desire to keep well to keep out of the way 

 of contagion. The disorder has in some parts of the 

 country risen to a state of raving madness, and men like 



insects round a fire in the woods of a dark night, are s 

 dashing into the flames. We have no doubt that the silk 

 business is to he one of the great interests of the country, 

 and one of the most productive and profitable of agricul- 

 tural employments, but the mulberry tree business and 

 the raising of silk are not precisely the same. One would 

 think, however, from present movniuents, that everything 

 is to be accomplished the next year;— that the end of the 

 world is to come then ; and that the " wedding garment 

 is to be made'of silk of man's own raising. When from 

 a single raulticaulis tree perhajis a thousand or more buds 

 or cuttings can be taken in a single season, each of which 

 will in one season, with good luck and good care, form a 

 handsome tree, certainly there need be no diffii ulty ap- 

 prehended in the propagation of the plant. Wlien a 

 hundred and sixty or two hundred or four hundred dol- 

 lars are demanded for a pound of mulberry seed not at all 

 sure to come up, which can be imported for a twentieth 

 part of that sum with equal confidence of success, we 

 cannot help .isking ourselves, where does the money 

 come from or where has the shrewdness of our merchants 

 and sea-captains gone to.' When half a dollar a piece 

 is asked and paid for trees which were grown this season 

 from seed sown last spring and represented to be of equal 

 or superior value for feeding worms with any trees grown, 

 and especially because it is stated that they will "stand 

 our climate," we are really very curious to know what is 

 to be the price next year of cabbage plants ; and whether 

 we cannot afford to raise them ujicm a considerable scale 

 at somewhere about fortyninc cents a plant. When silk- 

 worm eggs, which were formerly thought high at ei»ht 

 cents per thousand are now sold for twentyfive cents per 

 hundred, and fifty cents per hundred are even contempla- 

 ted, we are strongly inclined to believe, and we encou- 

 rage those who are too anxious to begin at once to wait 

 patiently, that our Connecticut wooden-nutmeg gentle- 

 men before spring will have an ample supply to meet any 

 demand, dropped on the best hot-pres.sed letter paper and 

 made out of the purest yellow bees-wax. But the flame 

 is kindled and the furnace glows with a while heat. Let 

 those, whose wings are not made of asbestos, try the in- 

 tensity of the flames if so they choose. H. C. ^ 



In Pennsylvania the Legislature lias been interrupted 

 in its organization and driven from its Hall by a mob, 

 threatening violence and deatii to ils members. The 

 origin of the ditliculty is wholly of a party character and 

 arises out of a amtest for seats by individuals whose 

 election is disputed. The Governor has ordered out the 

 military to restore order and maintain the supremacy of 

 the law. It is a most serious emergency ; and the clouds 

 hang heavily over that magnificent republic. It is hoped 

 that the glitter of the lancet will be sufficient to subdue 

 the intiammation without the necessity of depletion ; but 

 we wait with extreme anxiety the course of events. 

 Civil war, especially where parties are nearly equally 

 divided, is the most dreadful of all public calamities. It 

 is a game at w liich two parties play, and success itself is 

 always fearfully expensive. H. 0. 



At the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Society 

 for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry held at the 

 society's hall in Pawtuckct on the 17th day of October, 

 A. D. 18'3S, the following olBcers were chosen for the 

 year ensuing, viz : 



President — James Rhodes. 



1'ice Presiilcnt—iahn Jenckes }st, Stephen T. North- 

 am 2d, Nathan F. Dixon 3d. 



Treasurer — William Rhodes 



Seerctarij — William W. Hoppin. 

 Standing Committee — Dutee Arnold, Christoph 



