EDITOR'S TABLK, 



for floriculture, he would leave that to the ladies. For himself, he was willing to Impart 

 such information as lie had derived from ten years' experience as an amateiir farmer, in 

 hojies tliat the members present would express their views frankly on topics so interesting 

 to all. 



The suhjects for discussion would be — The mode of preparing the ground for crops, manures, 

 and their application ; crops cultivated ; rotation in crops, and modes of culture ; the or- 

 chard ; the garden ; the i>oultry and tlie pig yard ; and the dairy, and stock raising, &c. &c. 

 Each of these deserved, and he liopcd would receive, due consideration. 



To commence, he would call upon Farmer R., to state his experience in suhsoil plonghincj. 



Deacon R. said that he was not entirely satisfied with his experiments in that way. He 

 had. employed a team of seven yoke of oxen, with five Irishmen as aids, on a three acre 

 field, for about ten days, with the subsoil plough ; broke two ploughs, and had to pay for 

 one of the oxen, for want of knowledge on the part of the Irishmen how to manage the 

 baafes ; had thought that the work might have been done better and cheaper with the spade. 



Farmer R. B. thought the Irish plough — the spade — was the best, in the long run, for 

 amateur farming. 



Farmer W. R. was of that opinion decidedly. He had trenched, with the spade, three and 

 oue-half acres, two feet deep, and under-drained it with tile, at an expense of not over $165 

 per acre. 



Deacon S. would prefer three feet deep ; it would cost about fifty per cent. more. Had 

 tried it on his garden, and was well satisfied with the result. 



Tlie Chairman stated that he was then experimenting in that way on a hill-side of several 

 acres, but as to the cost he could not say, for he had long since burnt his books of farming 

 expenditures as vexatious tell-tales. 



W. R. said he had done the same thing with his mementos of that kind, considering 

 them nuisances. 



The Chairman asked for the experience of the members in planting. He would give his 

 own. He was an admirer oi forest trees, for their beauty and utility. Most of those on his 

 fami, however, were, unfortunately, in the wrong place, and he had to cut them down and 

 plant young ones in the place where the old ones should have stood. Planting his fruit-trees 

 near the canal, he found to be an ingenious contrivance to keep depredators from his vege- 

 tables, as long as the fruit lasted. 



Farmer D. said he had the same experience with his fruit, and had now to buy apples 

 for family use. 



Brother W. had found planting fruit-trees near the roadside to answer the same purpose. 

 Other members concurred in this opinion. 



Farmer S. had planted forest-trees around part of his farm, but more with a view to grow 

 fuel than rail timber. In fruit planting, he had selected the dwarf-trees, being more conve- 

 nient for children and visitors. 



W. R., by high manuring, had lost most of his pear-trees by blight. 



Brother W., by high culture, produced an immense growth of wood on his pear-trees, hut 

 no fruit ; he had taken them up and root-pruned them. 



Fanner B. had tried a coating of coal tar on some of his young fruit-trees, to prevent the 

 rabbits from girdling them in winter. The remedy kept oflf the rabbits, hut it killed the trees. 



" Poultry" was next called for by the Chair. 



Deacon S. said he would give in his experience. His poiiltry yard was unexceptionable, 

 and he had x^jjocured some of the finest heavy-bodied, short-legged Cochin-China fowls, at 

 $25 per pair, and Brahma Pootas at $20, tall enough to pick com oflf the head of a flour- 

 barrel — (Shanghais he considered a humbug) — but he had been more successful in rearing 

 fancy chickens than in keeping them, for they were nearly all stolen in one night, about the 

 time they were fat enough to eat. 



A new member remarked that the same accident had happened to his harness and garden- 

 tools, though he had no doubt but it was a very honest neighborhood. [The Chair called 

 to order.] 



Farmer R. said that he had been tolerably successful with fancy chickens. Had reared 

 about half the broods, and succeeded in keeping and selling them. Part of his stock had 

 been spared to Jirother ,S. (Here Brother S. groaned in the affirmative.) 



Farmer F. B. found no trouble in raising chickens ; but his valuable English greyhound 

 would eat them up about the time they were half-grown. 



Farmer M. preferred the common stock. With proper attention, he generally raised half 

 the broods. 



Farmer B. said he had an old hen that could beat that ; she seldom lost any ; but 



