For the above, the following awards were made, viz.:

A. H. Alley, Marblehead, best Hubbard Squash, premium, $3; best Butman Squash, gratuity, $1.50.

J. W. Blodgett, East Saugus, 1st premium, $3, for best Savoy, and 2d premium, $2, for Mammoth Drumhead Cabbages. John P. Bailey, Marblehead, gratuity, $2, for Hybrid Squash on condition that three squashes, raised from its seed, shall be exhibited at next year's fair.

H. F. Buxton, Peabody, gratuity, $1.50, for Compton Field Corn.

Nathan Bushby, Peabody, premium, $3, for best Parsnips. M. F. Batchelder, Peabody, Premiums, $3 each, for Short Top Long Orange, and Short Horn Orange Carrot; premiums, $2 each, for Long Smooth Dark Blood Beet and for Muskmelon; 2d premiums, $2 each, for Fottler's Drumhead Cabbage and Cauliflower; and gratuity, $2, for Sweet Herbs.

W. R. Cole, North Andover, Premium, $3, for best Ruta Baga Turnips, and 2d Premium, $2, for Cranberries.

Norman S. Cole, West Boxford, 3d premium, $1, for Cranberries.

Andrew Curtis, Peabody, premium, $3, for late Sweet Corn, in milk, (Stowell's Evergreen).

A. C. Estes, Rockport, premiums, $3 each, for best Early Rose Potatoes and Fottler's Drumhead Cabbages.

Levi Emery, Lawrence, premiums, $3 each, for Turnip Beets and Red Cabbages.

Mrs. Jeremiah Fuller, Middleton, gratuity, $1.50, for very choice looking gherkins, or small pickled cucumbers, in jars. Alfred Green, Salisbury, 2d premium, $2, for Savoy Cabbages; gratuity, $2, for exhibit of Potatoes and Onions.

J. J. H. Gregory, Marblehead, 1st premium, $8, for best collection of garden seed, 210 varieties; "Birds of New England" for best collection of Vegetables; premium, $3, for greatest variety of Tomatoes, (14 varieties); premiums, $3 each, for best Yellow and Red Flat Onions, best Nutmeg Melon ("Black Spanish"), Water Melon, Cauliflower ("Nonpareil"), and for Early Sweet Corn ("Marblehead").

S. W. Hathaway, Marblehead, 1st premium, $3, for Mammoth Cabbage; 2d premium, $2, for Stone Mason Cabbages; and gratuity, $1.50, for Yellow Danvers Onions.

E. G. Hyde, Danvers, premium, $3, for Purple Top Turnips; 2d premium, $2, for Red Cabbages; gratuities, $1 each, for Early Rose Potatoes and Short Horn Carrots.

John S. Ives, Salem, 2d premium, $6, for collection of garden seed, 198 varieties.

H. N. & A. D. Johnson, East Saugus, premium, $3, for best Field Corn; gratuity, $1, for Pearl Pop Corn.

Allen Lee, Manchester, gratuity, $1.50, for Early Rose Potatoes and Pole and Bush Beans, and $1 for Egyptian Sweet Corn.

Aaron Low, Essex, premiums, $3 each, for best Turban Squash ("Essex Hybrid"), best Round Flat Tomatoes ("Essex Smooth Round"), best dish of any other variety ("Low's New Hybrid").

Wm. Miller, Swampscott, gratuity, $1.50, for Sugar Beets. Josiah Newhall, Lynnfield, gratuity, $1.50, for Crookneck Squashes.

Asa T. Newhall, Lynn, premiums, $3 each, for best "Marblehead" Squash and Mangold Wurtzels.

Benajah Phillips, Swampscott, gratuities, $1 each, for Yellow Globe Turnips, and for Cucumbers and Peppers, and $1.50 for Melons.

W. W. Perkins, Newbury, gratuity, $1.50, for Danvers Yellow Onions.

E. P. Richardson, Lawrence, premium, $3, for best "Ohio" Potatoes.

H. A. Stiles, Middleton, premium, $3, for best peck of cultivated Cranberries.

Benjamin P. Ware, Marblehead, premium, $3, for best Boston Marrow Squash.

David Warren, Marblehead, 1st premiums, $3 each, for Stone Mason Cabbages and Danvers Onions.

E. F. Webster, Haverhill, gratuity, $1.50, for eighteen varieties of Seed Beans.

The Vegetable department of our Fair, in point of quantity and quality, was a decided success. Your Committee makes the same complaint, however, that former committees have done, feeling justified in making it the more strongly, as the advice and suggestions of former committees, progressive in spirit, with the good of the Society only in view, have not been acted upon. What your Committee complain of is:

1st. The scattering of the exhibit, part being on three tables in the hall and part in a tent outside. 2d. The different kinds of vegetables mixed together. 3d. Exhibits were not confined within the rules of the Society, as to the quantity and size of vegetables entered for premium.

We think three parties are to blame for it. 1st. The Society, by not giving notice that its exhibition hall will open for "entries" the afternoon and evening previous to the opening, thus

avoiding the rush, confusion and delay consequent upon the little time given in the forenoon of the opening day, for exhibitors to "enter" and arrange, to the best advantage, their exhibits, where they ought to be. The Hall Committee, under the Superintendent's direction, would have more time to look after and assist them, and the judges to make their awards, before the doors are thrown open to the impatient public. Exhibitors and committees would then have more time to devote to the transactions of the Society, outside of the exhibition hall. The Society should also provide designating cards for the position of the articles exhibited, and also provide all committees with appropriate designating badges, to be worn by each member during the continuance of the fair or while on duty. The importance of this to exhibitors and others seeking information is so great, that the expense of it would be insignificant.

2d. The Superintendent of the Hall should designate where each kind should be placed, by a card having the name of that kind conspicuously displayed; should not receive for entry or place more of each kind or variety than that for which premiums are offered, or less, except entered for exhibition only, so recorded upon the entry book, the exhibitor being so informed, and his exhibit not placed with competitors for premiums, but elsewhere, and when of special merit should receive gratuities. A suitable sub-committee should look out for and assist the exhibitors.

3d. The Exhibitor, before he exhibits, should ascertain the proper quantity and size required by the Society to compete for its premiums, not select five or six overgrown squashes, weighing twenty or more pounds, when three, not over ten pounds weight, are required; not select loose headed cabbages because they look larger, when a hard-headed, smaller one is superior; or great potatoes, scrubbed and rubbed, until they look as if made of wax, instead of grown in the earth, and as if "a good size for family use" meant large enough in size for a good family; or beets, carrots and turnips, scrubbed and shaved so close, both top and bottom, that they all become

"dead beats;" onions, with their outer skins peeled off "to make them look nice," their tops cut off so close as to make them unfit for keeping; vegetables dumped on to the table in a heap or almost hid in a deep, dirty box, instead of nicely arranging them, or in various ways making his exhibit non-conform with the rules or unattractive to the eye. The farmer ought to know by this time that the more attractive his products are arranged the better custom he has, and more from thoughtlessness than ignorance presents his products in the Fair in an unattractive form.

The above has not been written to apply so much to our late Fair as to all, for, as a whole, the exhibit was very attractive to the eye, and so generally good that many steps had to be taken by your committee between the hall and the tent, before a decision as to comparative merits could be made, and even then, with the best intentions to be just, it was almost impossible that full justice could be done when the articles in competition were not side by side.

The largest contributor to this department was the wellknown seedsman, Hon. J. J. H. Gregory of Marblehead, who exhibited eighty varieties of seventeen different kinds of vegetables, and two hundred and ten varieties of seed. His collection of Tomatoes was the largest of any, and his mode of cultivating them has been fully treated in a report made by him to the Society in 1871, and copied into the State Report the same year. He has also in other reports treated vegetables and seed in his usual practical form.

The next largest exhibit was by M. F. Batchelder of Peabody, who contributed twenty-four varieties of twelve different kinds.

The potatoes exhibited by eighteen contributors were very fine, although averaging larger than "a good size for family use," many of the new varieties being among them. Mr. Emery exhibited the "Goodwin Seedling," which potato was awarded the Society's premium of $25 this year," for the best seedling potato raised in Essex County, it having had a three