PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 211 



•before, and moved at too rapid a rate — not less than three and a 

 half miles per hour — yet they seemed to draw the machine with 

 ease. The depth of cut was, on the average, fi-om four to tive 

 inches; the machine is so arranged, however, as to graduate the 

 cut to any depth, not exceeding eight inches. As to the quality 

 of the work done, your committee can confidently say the soil 

 was more completely pulverized and aerated than it could have 

 been by any other means now kiiown to them. It was evident 

 that a large qnantity of soil was finely divided and thrown up into 

 the air constantly; tlie dust thus raised Avould have been annoy- 

 ing were not the knives covered by a hollow half cylinder of sheet- 

 iron. 



The breadth of land ready for the machine was too limited to 

 admit of a very extended trial; your committee can only speak 

 with certainty as to its action upon light sandy loam like that of 

 the farm of Mr. Smith. They would desire to see it operate in 

 heavy clay and in thoroughly wet soil. They hardl}^ need state 

 that the machine cannot be used on stonj^ ground. As to the 

 actual value of this mode of culture, nothing can be said with 

 certainty until after ascertaining the yield of two fields of the 

 same size lying side by side, one having been prepared for the 

 seed by the old, and the other by the new method. Your com- 

 mittee will say, however, they are ver}^ fiivorably impressed with 

 what they have seen thus far of the rotary pulverizer. 



SAML. D. TILLMAN, 

 ABRAM BERGEN, 

 JNO. M. CROWELL. 



New York, Sept. 18, 1866. 



On motion, the report was accepted. 



Preserving Sweet Corn. 



Mr. R. H. Arnold, Honeoye, N. Y., says: "In preparing sweet 

 corn for drying, its entire sweetness (much of which is lost by 

 boiling it in water) may be retained by cutting it off raw, and 

 putting it into a pan without water, and cooking it over a vessel 

 of boiling water." 



The Chairman gave it as his experience in preservin£>: sweet 

 corn the present season: Enough to fill two dozen glass jars was 

 boiled for half an hour; it was put up, the air tight lids put on, 

 and the jars put into a cool cellar. Before three days one-half of 

 them had burst, some of them going off into reports like muskets. 



