AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 79 



mud from salt water rivers, bays, &c. ? A thorough going farmer, the 

 most scientific one in this section, and who has farmed most of his life in 

 the western States, after three or four years' fair trial with the mud from 

 the bay, asserts that a load of it, after laying in the barn yard over winter, 

 is superior to the same quantity of marl. I have seen enough of it tried, 

 prepared thus, to know that it is equal to marl. 



" Do the Long Island members of your club make much use of shells 

 (oysters, &c.) ? Is it not their experience that burning shells is a waste ? 

 The ' Indian shell fields' in this section are our best fields. Informer 

 times the Indians from the Delaware would come here, and after catching 

 and opening clams and oysters would string them around their necks to 

 carry back with them ; the shells which they strewed around gradually 

 crumbled, and the fields where they are are always far ahead of any lands 

 around. Shells crushed quite. fine will last a lifetime, but if well burned 

 they last only a season or two. 



" Being anxious to obtain some facts in regard to transplanting cran- 

 berries, how they yield, &c., in other places, I ventured to trouble you 

 with this letter. EDWIN SALTER." 



Mr. Robinson continued. — Now what a chance is here for any one dis- 

 posed to make money out of labor upon land. Let him go and buy a tract 

 of this marshy ground and plant it with cranberry vines. As to the yield 

 of transplanted vines, Mr. Pardee states that one piece produced 30 bushels 

 the first year of bearing, 100 bushels the second year, 200 bushels the third 

 year ; and another gentleman reported here a short time since a crop of 

 .400 bushels. In regard to the use of mud and pulverized shells, I propose 

 that we take that up as a question for discussion at the next meeting. 



Mr. Pardee. — I want to have the Club continue to discuss the subject of 

 small fruits and flowers. Now there is the Cherry currant ; it is a large 

 showy fruit, but is it any better than the Red grape or White grape currauti 

 Except for making jelly, is this new variety an improvement? It is very 

 acid, and perhaps no better than the old sorts. About raspberries, I have 

 no doubt that all will yield double if protected in winter. I think the Or- 

 ange and Fastolffe are the best sorts. The Allen raspberry appears to be 

 hardy. Houghton's seedling gooseberry never mildews, and therefore it is 

 preferable to the imported sorts. The country is flooded with seedlings of 

 all sorts of fruits, that, however good, are rarely as good as old sorts, and 

 frequently worse. If I had but one cherry, 1 would choose the Old Black 

 Tartarian. The Mayduke is a good cherry, and ripens early, but as it is 

 red a long time before ripe, it is apt to be eaten when very acid and really 

 unfit to eat. When it is fully ripe it remains but a very short time. I 

 should like to have the club devote one day particularly to flowers. 



It was agreed that this question should take the lead at the next meet- 

 ing in preference to the other subjects on hand. 



The meeting was full to-day, as it has been every Monday of late, inclu- 

 ding the sex that loves flowers, and it is hoped they will be present, and 

 find something interesting, at the next meeting. It is an excellent place 



