PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 83 



at all prices, from $2 or $3 per 100 and upward. It is safe to 

 say, that $20, judiciously invested in them, will, with proper care 

 for ten years, add $200 to the selling value of any prairie farm, 

 and more than twice that amount to its comfort and beauty as a 

 home. At the present rate of devastation, in twenty years more 

 the native groves in this vicinity will be g;one. Plant trees — the 

 birds in crowds will come to aid you, by destroying multitudes of 

 insect enemies, and cheer you with the sweetest and cheapest of 

 music. Plant them for yourselves and your friends to enjoy while 

 you live, and as a lasting blessing to your children. The greatest 

 need we have for timber is not, as some have supposed, to cut 

 down for use, but for shelter — protection from the bleak winds of 

 winter. During the terrible western ' wind storms ' of winter, 

 which drive all animals to shelter, or chill them to death, men 

 work under the lee of these belts of evergreens as comfortably as 

 if protected by a stone wall." 

 Adjourned. 



A:pril 24, 1866. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the Chair ; John W. Chambers, Secretary. 



Pykenean Spinach. 



Mr. Wm. R. Prince, Flushing, L. I., sends to the club for distri- 

 bution a quantity of the Pyrenean spinach, and gives the following 

 information in relation to its cultivation : 



"The Pyrenean spinach is an Alpine plant, capable of enduring 

 the severest cold of the most northern States of our Union. It is 

 perennial, and therefore, if grown in good soil, will endure for a 

 long course of years. The seeds may be sown in the same manner 

 as cabbage seeds, and when about the same age as they are usually 

 transplanted, say four or five weeks old; these may be transplanted 

 in like manner into beds, which for convenience had better be of 

 about four feet in breadth by ten feet in length, and the plants 

 should be set therein at a distance of ten inches in each direction. 

 Beds of these dimensions should comprise four rows of plants and 

 eleven plants in each row, allowing for breeders. One such l)ed 

 would afford spring greens for a small family, and two beds for a 

 large one. The foliage of this plant resembles our dock, but is 

 thin and delicate, and of very pleasant flavor. The precocity of 

 the plant is such, resulting from its Alpine character, that the 



