350 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



further out, between the Pacinc railroad and Osage river. I 

 wished to have presented the seed to some of the Farmer's Club 

 to experiment upon; and I now make this statement with the 

 hope that some cultivator, having time and means, will hunt it 

 out, and prevent it becoming extinct. 



But as clothing is second only in importance to food, fibre- 

 yielding plants should demand our discovery and cultivation. as 

 well as the cereal. Why is there nothing done with the wild 

 flax that Fremont observes, in his journal, growing on the 

 Kansas river ? While we have forty or fifty leading plants, that 

 furnish food, we have only the two, flax and hemp, that furnish 

 lint with cotton for clothing. Tlie economy of society is fortified 

 by having a variety of plants growing in different seasons, that 

 may supply the place of those that may fail through drouth. 

 There are whole orders of plants remarkable for the toughness 

 of their fibres. There are the asclepiadacece for instance, con- 

 taining, according to Lindley, one hundred and forty-one genera, 

 and nine hundred and ten species, some yielding the strongest 

 fibres known, and yet we are not using one of them. I have 

 obseved growing around New York, at least three species, all 

 having an equally strong centicle fibre or lint, and yet no use is 

 made of them. Mr. SchaefFer, in the Agricultural report of the 

 Patent office, considers the lint of the milk-weed equal to flax or 

 hemp, or at least good for paper pulp. Is there any one who 

 can experiment upon it further, by sowing it thicker, and see 

 what cultivation Avill do for it? It being perceived it could be 

 cultivated easily and cheaply, and should the oil and gum of the 

 seed answer as well as that of flax, why Avould it not be a good 

 auxilliary ? It is rumored that a farmer in Wisconsin improved 

 the strength of the fibre of the pod by cultivation. 



PRESERVING TENDER EVERGREENS. 



Mr. Carpenter stated that he preserves tender evergreens by 

 loosening the roots upon one side and turning the tree down, and 

 covering it with earth. 



TOBACCO CULTIVATION. 



Solon Robinson read a letter of inquiry upon the subject of 

 tobacco cultivation, which elicited a spirited discussion upon the 

 question of growing a plant that has done so much injury to the 

 world. Mr. Robinson contended that the cultivation was a curse 

 rather than a benefit to Connecticut. 



