144 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The product of wine per acre yielding 100 bushels of berries would be 

 forty barrels, costing, exclusive of berries, $11 a barrel, and selling, at $1 

 a gallon, for $1,200. 



Upon this calculation, will the market ever be glutted, or will the culti- 

 vation of the crop, which costs no more than a crop of corn, exclusive of 

 the picking, ever cease to be remunerating ? 



There is another thing in this connection. We have, we do, we shall 

 send Ohio whiskey to France, to be run through the stills upon the lees of 

 the wine press, which we buy back at a high price under the name of 

 brandy. From blackberry wine we can make a very superior brandy at 

 less cost, and far more fit for medicinal purposes. We can also make black- 

 berry syrup, if we have the fruit in abundance, that will cure all the sum- 

 mer complaints in the community, and save the lives of an army of children 

 every year. 



Every one present had an opportunity, after the adjournment of the 

 Club, to test the quality of this fruit, Mr. Lawton and Messrs. Drew and 

 French having each furnished a liberal supply. There was not a dissent- 

 ing voice from one of the large number of men and women present, as to 

 the excellence of the quality. The berries are sweet and rich. 



RASPBEimiES. 



Mr. Fuller exhibited some fine specimens of raspberries in full bearing, 

 which were produced by a continual liberal use of liquid manure. 



FLOWERS. 



Mr. Burgess exhibited several beautiful seedling dahlias, seedling roses, 

 and a valuable hardy flowering shrub, the Wiglia Amabilis, which he 

 recommended to general use. 



DWARF BANANAS. 



Solon Robinson exhibited a specimen of bananas, grown by Parsons, 

 Flushing, L. I., upon plants so dwarfed that they can be produced in any 

 ordinary conservatory, comparing somewhat with the common plant as 

 dwarf pears do to full-sized trees. 



The Secretary. — I want Dr. Waterbury to say a few words upon a subject 

 that we have had some time before us, as I understand he has been making 

 some rescai'ches. 



Dr. Waterbury. — Long Island is composed entirely of what geologists 

 term drift ; the bed rock lying below the level of low tide. Boulders are 

 scattered over the northern slope and are found also on making excavations 

 below the surface, but the southern slope is throughout composed of a loose 

 sandy loam. The soil of the whole island is uniformly of this description, 

 having few or no stratified beds of clay underlying it. 



On this soil annually falls some 35 to 40 inches of rain, and yet there 

 are no brooks or rivulets of much size, and consequently no gullies on the 

 island torn by running water. The whole formation, from its porous nature, 

 must be pervious to the ocean, so as to be underlaid by a perfectly level 



