238 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN 



Mr. Rosenstiel pointed out the difificulty of growing any plant sub- 

 ject to crossing, to procure pure seed. He referred to growing of cabbage 

 and turnip-seed side by side, and how the turnip ruined the cabbage, 

 and so it was with the corn. The bees and the winds carry the pollen 

 from flower to flower, and thus contrived to break down distinct varie- 

 ties. It was, therefore, of great importance to have seed that is thus lia- 

 ble to be affected planted widely separate.d. 



Mr. Schuyler was given permission to exhibit a process for drying 

 fruits, which occupied the attentiori of the meeting till the hour of ad- 

 journment. 



Among the objects of interest on the tables for exhibition to-day 

 are several sections of European larch from the forest of D. C. Scofield, 

 Elgin, showing a prodigious growth in thirteen years ; a section of Scotch 

 pine of thirteen years from seed growth, by Mr. Hill, of Dundee ; thirty- 

 eight specimens of forest-tree planting, by Arthur Bryant. Mrs. P. V. 

 Hathaway, of Damascus, exhibited a fine collection of botanical speci- 

 mens, and a curiosity in the shape of a nest of the golden oriole woven 

 with amazing ingenuity out of worsted threads. 



Adjourned till half past one o'clock. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 

 Meeting called to order by the president at half-past one o'clock. 



Mr. Hawlev by permission, exhibited the Ruttan principle for 

 drying fruits. 



Mrs. p. V. Hathaway read the following ])aper on Ornithology. 



THE BIRDS. 



BY MRS. P. V. HATHAWAY. 



We are debtors to the birds. Even in winter, the Black-capped 

 Titmouse, the Blue-jay, and several species of Woodpeckers, arc busy 

 searching for the eggs and larvae of insects, and the Sparrows are eating 

 up the weed-seeds. With each returning spring, come the flights of 

 migratory workers. The [)lowed fields are flushed with the breasts of 

 the Robins, and shining with the bronze backs and scarlet-crested wings, 

 of the Blackbirds. Every plant-eating insect, whether in the form of egg, 

 larva, chrysalis, or perfect insect, destroyed in the spring, saves the crop 

 which it is liable to attack, whether grain or fruit, from the ravages of 

 hundreds, perhaps thousands of destroyers later in the season. Of 

 course this is not strictly the case with these slow-growing larvae which 

 require several years for their development, the white grub of the May 



