AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 185 



Witt, of Williamsburgh ; Olcott, Lawton, of New Rochelle, and others, — 

 27 members. 



William Lawton in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



The Seci'etary read the following papers, viz : 



[Societe Imperial, ka. August, 1858.] 



PLUMS. 



M. G. Liegel, in the Monatschrift fur Pomologie, a distinguished 

 pomologist, says, by profoundly studying the varieties of the plum, he has 

 discovered that the plum stones furnish by their forms more precise 

 knowledge of the true character of the fruit they belong to than external 

 examination of the fruit itself can do, especially as to its size and color, 

 and a collection of the pitt's nuts will always serve to determine the fruit. 

 That he uses it with great advantage. He says : 



1st. I examine the nut to ascertain whether the point of it is in the mid- 

 dle of the upper and lower shells, or a little on one side of the center ; 

 "whether it is long or short, shai-p or obtuse, or prominent. 



2d. The upper shell has three angular ridges, one in the middle and one 

 on each side, sometimes well separated, sometimes lightly marked, some- 

 times near each other, sometimes quite prominent, as in apricot nuts, 

 "widely spaced, &c., &c. 



He advises that the nuts of the best plums should be preserved ; their 

 forms, as well as that of their fruits, be exactly drawn. That such models 

 will always be valuable to fruit raisers. 



Extracts from Mr. D. K. Minor's letter from Australia. 



Melbourn, Australia, August, 13, 1858. 

 Gen. Chandler, of the American Institute. Bear sir — I have now 

 been in this city four weeks, during which time I have been constantly 

 engaged in getting our machinery on shore and in store, and preparing for 

 its transport to the mines, where I intend to engage in working a quartz 

 gold mine. It will take me about two months, probably, to select a loca- 

 tion and get fifteen or twenty tons of machiubry there and in operation. 

 Of course I have had, thus far, very little opportunity to investigate the 

 agricultural progress here, nor shall I be able to give much thought to 

 it. From what I have seen, heard of and tasted, I have a very exalted 

 idea of the capability of this country of large crops of the very best wheat, 

 oats and other grain, of potatoes and other vegetables, superior to any I 

 ever saw except in California, and same of Apples, pears, peaches, figs, and 

 a great variety of the finest grapes. Excellent beef, superior to your New 

 York beef, at 6 to 4^ pence ; choice corned beef 3^- to 4 pence, or from 16 

 cents to 7. 



I have rarely seen such fine oats and corn. I hope to send samples to 

 the American Institute. Here I am in the midst of winter. A plowing 

 match came off the other day ; the plows were vei"y long, made of wrought 

 iron, yokes of wood with iron bows. I should like to see the Yankee yoke 

 along side of them. I wish to become instrumental in exchanges between 



