vol.. XVII. KK 'iO- 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



309 



iVgriculture shall receive the same compensation 

 w travel and attendance, which is now paid county 

 :ommissioners, and the Governor shall draw his 

 warrant therefor accordingly. 



MINORITY REPORT. 



In Sknatk, March 16,1839. 

 The undersigned, a minority of the Committee 

 on Agriculture, to whom was committed an order 

 of the Senate of February 12th, with instructions 

 to consider the expediency of establishing a Board 

 of Agriculture, and the appointment of a State 

 Chemist, has considered that subject, and a majority 

 of the committee have reported that it is expedient. 

 The undersigned concurs with a majority of the 

 committee in their statement of the vast importance 

 of agriculture, and of its immense benefits. It is 

 surefy the cultivation and the productions of the 

 earth, which gives us our wealth, prosperity and 

 subsistence, in a far greater degree than from all 

 other sources from which wealth is created. The 

 producers are the only class of men who add to 

 the wealth of the nation ; all others being mere 

 speculators on their labors. These being the 

 opinions of the undersigned, it is his desire to aid 

 in any measure, having for its object the promotion 

 of individual and national wealth, and having a 

 direct tendency to benefit the hard-handed yeo- 

 manry of Massachusetts, who, of all people in the 

 State, deserve encouragement, and have had the 

 least of it from the Legislature. 



It will not be denied but that the measures pro 

 posed, were ihey properly directed and applied, 

 might produce beneficial results. Yet it is doubted 

 wlfether they would in any great degree compare 

 with the expense incurred. Past experience is a 

 teacher by no means to be disregarded. And if 

 the course hitherto adopted to aid the practical 

 farmer, is still to be pursued, it is rendered nearly 

 certain that the appointment of a Board of Agri- 

 culture and State Chemist, as recommended by a 

 majority of the committee, will not promote the 

 object intended. 



The agricultural survey, now in progress, is 

 evidence to the undersigned, of the misapplication 

 of the revenues of the State; and may aflbrd 

 evidence, that a State Chemist would derive more 

 benefit from his salary than would the farmers from 

 his researches. 



If the agricultural societies have failed to afford 

 the benefits anticipated, it may well be doubted 

 whether any greater would result from a Board of 

 Agriculture, especially if the members of the 

 board are to be selected from mere theorists in 

 agriculture. The appropriations and expenditures 

 of the State are now, for the agricultural survey, 

 agricultural societies, and those of natural history, 

 about eight thousand dollars per annum, which 

 does not operate to favor the practical and laborious 

 farmer, to be at all compared to the expenditure. 

 And in the present exhausted state of the treasury, 

 there ought not to ho any increase of expenditure 

 of doubtful utility, the result of which will be to 

 throw a heavy burthen on the farmer, who must 

 soon be compelled by taxation to yield from his 

 hard earned gains his quota of tax, for paying sal- 

 aries, and other expenditures of the State of the 

 like nature, which are rapidly increasing, and if 

 continued, must in a few years be oppressive. 



With these views, and other considerations, 

 which the undersigned will forbear to mention, 

 while yielding to no one in the high estimation of 

 the farmers, and believing them to be the most 



substantial portion of the community, whose moral 

 worth is almost universally overlooked by other 

 poVtions of the community, entertaining also the 

 n-reatest respect for the opinions of the majority of 

 the committee, still he is comjiellod to come to a 

 different conclusion from them, and to hope the 

 measures proposed by the majority may not be 

 adopted. 



The undersigned being clearly of opinion, that 

 tlie interests of the farmers will be better promoted 

 by being left without legislative interference, either 

 by direct attempts to aid them, or by conferring on 

 others special privileges by acts of incorporation 

 which in effect, abridges the natural rights of 

 others. 



Which is respectfully submitted by 



SETH WHITMARSH. 



PROVISION OP FUNDS FOR COMMON 



SCHOOLS IN MAINE. 

 Maine, it seems, has acted wisely with the money 

 of the United States given as her share of the 

 surplus. She has sown seed which will not fail tu 

 yield an abundant harvest ; and the advantages of 

 her sound and discreet management will be con. 

 tinually multiplying and expanding themselves. 



We are sorry ever to speak ill of our own rela- 

 tions and family, but it is to the everlasting dis- 

 grace of Massachusetts, that when the means of 

 securing the highest and most permanent benefits 

 to the State were placed within her reach, in the 

 way of advancing public improvements or of ex- 

 tending most largely the means of education, she, 

 from miserable niotives of party policy, refused to 

 avail herself of them, and distributed this magnifi-^ 

 cent donation from the general government among 

 the towns ; and not a few of the towns divided it 

 among the people in small sums. One town, for 

 example, where being divided per capita, the sum 

 received amounted to less than three dollars per 

 head, it was loaned out upon the notes of individ- 

 uals for two dollars and some cents each, and for 

 the sole reason of evading the law, at one percent, 

 interest For all good to come of such a disposi- 

 tion it might as well, in many cases it had better, 

 have been thrown into the sea, 



Massachusetts complained loudly of the late 

 administration of the national government for re- 

 fusing and preventing all measures of internal im- 

 provement. It seems, however, when they had the 

 means of pursuing this system in their own State, 

 and at their own pleasure, with an ineffable indis- 

 cretion, to use no harder language, they chose to 

 throw all the advantages away; and refused to 

 devote one cent to any public improvement. We 

 admire consistency wherever we find it, H. C. 



The revenues derived from the U. S. Deposite 

 fund, and which are applicable to the purposes of 

 education, are stated to be as follows : 



Int. on deposites in banks in 1837, 70,709 33 

 do. on mortgages in 1837, 13,426 59 



do. on do. in Oct. 1838, 266,445 97 



SAVINGS BANKS. 

 Benevolence never devised an institution, which 

 in the present condition of society, is adapted to 

 do more good tlian the institutions for savings. 

 They save to those, who have earned it by hard 

 labor, a vast amount of money, which for want of 

 some place of safe keeping would otherwise be 

 squandered. They encourage and stimulate most 

 powerfully industry, frugality, and temperance. — 

 They awaken a sentiment of self-confidence and 

 self-respect, the great elements of virtue ; and 

 could we but trace in all their ramified conse- 

 quences, the vast benefits which have sprung from 

 them, they would exhibit an amount and harvest of 

 good beyond that of many of the most popular and 

 beneficent institutions in the community which are 

 more strictly denominated charitable. 



Institutions for Savings.— 'The following results 

 are shown by the returns of the 34 Savings Insti- 

 tutions in Massachusetts, showing their condition 

 on the last Saturday of October last. 

 Number of depositors, 33,063 



Amount of deposites, .$4,869,362 59 



Invested in Bank Stocks, 1,426,183 72 



Deposites in banks, 568,787 09 



Loans on Bank Stocks, 536,931 13 



Invested in Public Funds, 70,000 00 



Loans on Public Scrip, 10,000 00 



Loans on Mortgage, 1,121,300 18 



Loans to Counties or Towns, 465,247 69 



Loans on Personal Securities, 672,117 97 



Cash on hand, 144,262 00 



Dividends for the year, 248,039 07 



-Annual Expenses, 18,-329 11 



These vast amounts have grown out of the col- 

 lection and saving of sums of twentyfive cents and 

 upwards, and very few of them from the laying 

 aside of more than five or ten dollars at any one 

 time. ^^- ^• 



$350,581 89 

 After paying the annual appropriations from this 

 revenue for schools, academies and colleges, there 

 will remain $127,581 89 to be invested as capital 

 for the school fund ; which will make the total 

 capital of that fund 2,076,000. Hereafter, the ad- 

 dition to the capital of the school fund, from the 

 revenue of the U. States Deposite, will be about 

 50,000 annually. 



(For the New England Farmer.) 



AUTUMNAL MARROW SQUASH. 



Salem, March. 



Mr Editor, — 



This vegetable was introduced here six years 

 since. Six seeds were received from a Mrs Tucker 

 near Northampton, enclosed in a letter to her 

 nephew, Mr Geo. C. Cook of Salem, by the name 

 of Vegetable Marrow ; this being, however, the 

 name of a summer squash long since cultivated in 

 Europe, of a gourd shape, the name Autumnal was 

 applied to it here. I have endeavored to ascertain 

 its origin but without success ; it is probably a 

 hybrid,'' accidentally produced in th»t section of 

 the country. This variety, when pure, averages 

 from 8 to 10 lbs. They are so inclined to mix 

 with the tribe of squashes (the crook-neck excepted) 

 that they are fast disappearing from our gardens ; 

 the course which I have taken to preserve this vari- 

 ety pure has been to sow a few seeds very late in 

 summer, as far from all others as possible. One 

 of the most singular eftects produced by mixing 

 the Autumnal Marrow with the Valparaiso is, that 

 after the first season they will produce a large, 

 coarse grained and and very sweet squash, and the 

 seed from the said mixture in the following season 

 generally a small and worthless variety. The true 

 Autumnal Marrow will, in a favorable season, be 

 fit for the table in six weeks from its setting fruit ; 

 and is then an excellent summer squash, and we 

 still consider it, when pure, tlie finest winter squash 

 known. Yours, J- M. I. 



