202 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



for a horse tLan for cattle. Ruta bagas do not give taste to milk, but 

 common turnips do. 



Mr. Meigs mentioned the alarm in England as to the failure of the tur- 

 nip from disease. That about ten years ago a report to Parliament esti- 

 mated the agricultural product of England at three thousand millions of 

 dollars — of which the turnip in all its uses formed fifteen hundred mil- 

 lions of dollars ! 



The Chairman had found advantages in giving to his stock a variety of 

 food. That the animals have excellent memories, and demand as much 

 punctuality in their meals as we do. 



Mr. Provoost found a gi-eat advantage in the Russia turnip crop, because 

 he first took off his land good crops of peas, beans, and the like, and then 

 comes the turnip. 



Mr. Pardee wanted for digging up roots such a fork as was not made. 

 It should be eighteen or twenty inches long in the three or four tines, and 

 so strong as to bear the leverage at that depth under the carrots, beets, &c. 



Subjects for next meeting, prepared by Prof. Mapes : " Root feeding;" 

 "Spring management of fruit trees." By Mr. Olcott : " The management 

 of agricultural fairs." 



Adjourned. H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



January 4, 18.59. 

 John M. Crowell, M. D., in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary. 

 The Secretary read extracts and translations made by him from foreign 

 and domestic papers, lately received by the Institute : 



THE OSTRICH. 



[The Societc Imperiale Zoologiqne crAccUmatation, July, 1858.] 

 This powerful society uses its means in causing all animals of utility or 

 beauty, to be brought into France and acclimated there. The ostrich is 

 one which they have already taken seriously in hand. The knowledge 

 they have acquired relative to that great bird, surpasses all former. 

 Through the instrumentality of their agents in Algeria, <ltc., they have 

 commenced the domestication in the central nursery of the government, at 

 Hamma, near Algiers. A flock of them was gathered, by ofiicers, civil and 

 military, during tlie last twelve years. Some of the birds were sent to the 

 Museum of Natural History, at Paris — some of these were afterwards sent 

 to the Zoological gardens of Marseilles and Antwerp. At the Paris Mu- 

 seum they were put into a circular spot, fifty feet in diameter, having 

 sheds all around the Interior. Into these sheds the birds never entered, be 

 the weather ever so bad. The males were perpetually fighting. At length 

 one became conqueror, and never allowed his enemy a moment's peace, 

 whether he was eating or loving. The females began to la}' eggs quite 

 regularly, beginning about the middle of January, and continuing until the 

 latter part of Mtirch. Sometimes they re-commence laying in September 



