264 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



how to put it up. How good it is on a cold morning with pota- 

 toes, butter, buckwheat-cakes and pickles ! Our friends have had 

 many years of experience, and they have tried every M'ay they could 

 think of. One year they put up many thousand cans and suc- 

 ceeded well. The next year, by precisely the same method, they 

 lost all, and there seemed nothing certain. At last they are able 

 to give positive directions. They are as follows : "Let it alone." 

 Adjourned. 



Novcmher 13, 1866. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair ; Mr. John "W. Chambers, Sec'y. 



The Dishcloth Gourd. 



Dr. J. V. C. Smith exhibited one of these natural dishcloths. 

 It is simply a covering of the seeds of a gourd, which is much 

 o-rown in Louisiana, Texas, &c., where it is called toreJion. Its 

 shape is somewhat like one grown here, known as vegetal)le mar- 

 row, from one to four feet in length like a club, with a small ])ulb 

 at the end. When ripe it is beaten upon a block or stone until 

 the shell is broken away and the seeds scattered, the librous net- 

 work then appears like a net bag or Fez cap. This which I hold 

 in my hand, I cut open, thus you see it appears like thickly inter- 

 woven fabric, a foot in length, and eight or nine inches in width. 

 In countries where they grow, this netting is used for dishcloths, 

 scrubbino-cloths, horsecloths, also in the bathroom for many other 

 purposes. I hope the gourds can be grown here, for I am sure 

 they would prove very useful. For that purpose, I have procured 

 a few seeds, a couple of which I will give to each member present, 

 who feels disposed to make a trial. 



Mr. N. C. Meeker doul)ted Avhether they could be grown as far 

 north as this. He had tried and failed in lat. 37". There is no 

 mistake in their value. One of these articles would outwear a 

 dozen woven dishcloths. They are not oidy needed for that, but for 

 makino- bonnets, very good looking ones too, not unlike those I 

 often sec on Broa 'way. 



Mr. Solon Robinson said they grow as far north as Nashville, 

 Tenn. I think they can be grown here 1>y starting them in hot- 

 beds giving the plants a warm Southern exposure. 



Dr. Smith said a gentleman in this city had succeeded in ripen- 

 inir them, and intended to distribute the seeds, l)ut his gardener 

 thought them an acquisition and carried them off. 



