114 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Mr. Fuller explained his method of training grape vines, sub- 

 stantially the same as Mr. Hite's. He would have the trellis 18 

 inches from the ground, in order to prevent the bunches from 

 being spattered with dirt. He preferred allowing one vine to 

 occupy the lower bar of the trellis, and the next vine the upper 

 ' bar, rather than to fasten the two to the same bar. When the 

 shoots reach to the top of the trellis it is usual to pinch off the 

 ends ; but he preferred to let the two end shoots run wild. If 

 the top is checked too much it checks the roots, and some strong- 

 growing varieties will do to grow wild. The next year these 

 ends are cut off down to the trellis. 



Mr. Gale said that Mr. Hite proposed to connect those two 

 ends by inarching. 



Mr. Fuller. — I see no advantage in that. 



The Chairman suggested the appointment by the Farmers' Club 

 of a permanent committee whose duty it shall be annually to 

 revise the list of fruits recommended to be cultivated. 



Mr. P. G. Bergen stated that he had visited the "barrens" of 

 Long Island and had found strawberries and blackberries doing 

 well. The cranberries transferred to the uplands were doing 

 extremely well. He considered those lands capable of high cul- 

 tivation with moderate fertilization. He had seen cucumbers 

 and melons of remarkable growth. Dwarf pear trees did not 

 seem to do well, perhaps from the difference of the soil from that 

 of New Jersey whence the trees were obtained. The cranberries 

 are cultivated by some between the pear trees. Their cultiva- 

 tion on the uplands is still a matter of experiment, but has been 

 tried since 1856. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



Mr. Fuller exhibited specimens of jose bugs and beetles. 



The Chairman. — Here are a few specimens of the immense class 

 of coleoptera. Some of them live three or four years under the 

 ground in the form of a larva ; and this is the period of their 

 destructiveness. The greater part of these beetles are amongst 

 the scavengers of the world. Very few of them in this, the last 

 stage of their life, eat much of anything. 



Mr. Fuller said that the word "rose-bug" included a large 

 variety of insects, every locality giving the name to a special 

 variety. These are some of the last to appear. By keeping a 

 diary, he had found that the same varieties always appeared 



