PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS CLUB. W 



parts of the country in the Smithsonian reports, from which any 

 one can make up a table. 



Mr. Wilder. — Such a table has for several months appeared in 

 the Agriculturalist. 



Mr. Solon Robinson — I would sooner trust the test to a plain, 

 practical farmer. Let us call for information from farmers, and 

 see how many report getting prophecies from their barometers 

 soon enough to be of any use. 



Col. Henry remarked that no vessel would be allowed to go to 

 sea without a barometer. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — Last summer, in Connecticut, I visited a 

 farmer who had paid a great price for a barometer, on the recom- 

 mendation of a certain New York publisher. He had studied it 

 two years, and told me he did not think it worth one cent in prac- 

 tical farming. At the same place 1 conversed with an old sea 

 captain, who said barometers would foretell wind at sea, but were 

 no indicators of rain. 



Monroe's Rotary Harrow. 



A model of Monroe's rotary harrow, made by H. H. ]\Ionroe, 

 Rockland, Maine, was next exhibited. The harrow is circular, 

 and is drawn by a shaft pivoted at the centre. A weighted roller 

 depresses one side and keeps the harrow in constant rotation. It 

 is much more thorough in its work than an ordinary harrovi^, can 

 be used among stones and stumps, and will not clog among corn 

 stubble. At the last Nevf York State Fair it was awarded a sih 

 ver medal. 



Sirup from Indian Corn. 



Mr. George Bartlett. — Something has been said here, and a 

 good deal written and talked all over the country, about the pur- 

 chase by sugar manufacturers in this city of a newly discovered 

 process of making sugar out of Indian corn. Then we heard that 

 the sugar part had been abandoned, and the parties were manu- 

 facturing sirup which would rival sorgo, and use up the great sta- 

 jile crop of Illinois. I have lately ascertained that this process 

 has been entirely abandoned, and the manufacturers have come 

 back to the old and avcU known <nic of converting starch into 

 sirup; which can only be done to advantage near where the corn is 

 grown, where there is good water privilege and large starch man- 

 ufactories in connection with establishments for converting it into 

 sirup. 



