AMERICAN iNSTltuTE. 153 



Tlie vines of melons should never extend to the vines of another hill. 

 Highly fertilized land may be planted with melon hills four feet apart, and 

 produce a good crop. 



I will say, in answer to that question about 



UNDERDRAINING. 



An opinion about underdraining at this day is of no account. The Eng- 

 lish government have loaned to its people $55,000,000 at 5 per cent, to 

 enable them to underdrain their farms, and no case has been found of 

 underdraining that land was not benefited by it. No underdrained land 

 ever suffers from drouth. In all the loans for undei'draining no loss has 

 occurred in all England. If it was not for these improvements England 

 could not sustain its inhabitants. The whole capacity of the land is 

 increased to double what it was before. It is a settled question that all 

 drains should be open at both ends. 



It is settled also that the water enters the drains from below, and never 

 runs as flush during a shower as it does the nest day. 



PRUNING BLACKBERRIES. 



Wm. Lawton." — A lady, Mrs. A. Houghton, of St. Albans, Vermont, 

 asks when should the pruning be done. Before the buds put forth in spring. 

 I cut back the wood of last year's growth one-fourth or one-third. If the 

 stalk is three feet long, cut off one foot, and so of lesser or greater growth. 

 I would cut away all but two or three shoots in a hill, each stalk will then 

 produce two or three hundred full sized berries. 



The next meeting uf the Club will be next Monday noon, when, among 

 other things, the subject of flowers, now in session, will be treated of, and 

 members are invited to bring specimens, which will be presented to the 

 lady visitors. A large number of these were present to-day. 



After the next meeting of the Club it is probable it will adjourn until 

 the close of the Institute Fair at the Crystal Palace, which will be in 

 operation during the last of September and all of October. 



BUTTER MAKING. 



The whole system of a premium butter maker. 



Solon Robinson. — I hold in my hand a communication of great value to 

 the dairy interest of this country. It is a letter from H. E. Lowman, of 

 Chemung county, N. Y., giving a detailed statement of the whole system 

 of Jesse Carpenter of that county, who is one of the most successful pre- 

 mium butter makers who has ever exhibited at the New York State Agri- 

 cultural Fair, 



I wi:<h that other butter makers might be equally successful, and to pre- 

 serve this valuable paper in a more permanent form, I produce it here that 

 it way be printed in the volume of Transactions. 



Mr Carpenter has long been known in the butter-making region and in 

 the market as one of the most intelligent and successful dairymen and 

 farmers in the country; and the writer of this being a neighbor of his, and 



