214 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



them were as badly diseased as any men, in that vital organ. I followed 



that injunction. 



Prof. Mapes had sold his pears this year for $8.50 per hundred. Last 



year for $12.50. On Jersey city ferry only, last season, ninety thousand 



baskets of strawberries in one day. Peaches incumbered steamboat decks, 



and often are numerous baskets of them emptied into the river because the 



prices were too low ; at the same time good ones sold readily at $2.50 



per basket. 1 he dealers drowned peaches as some do kittens, to make cats 



more valuable, 



Mr. Lawton. — I sold my strawberries for 75 cents a quart. I have now 



one acre of Wilson's seedlings, and another acre of Peabody's. 



Prof. Mapes. — My Napoleon pears prove always good ; they often do not 



on other fields. Pomological conventions have condemned them. I do 



not. The causes of failure I do not know — the causes may be many. 

 Mr. Fuller exhibited Cedar of Lebanon, with its cone, from his place on 



Lono- Island. It has been found difficult to cultivate. I do not find it so. 



It hates standin . ii wet. 



The President called up the question of the day " Small farms near large 



cities," and invited Prof. Mapes to speak. 



Prof. Mapes said that he was happy to find others willing to hear him, 



but for his own part he was almost tired of hearing himself talk. 



Land near large cities necessarily rises to high prices, and can no longer 

 afi'ord to bear the grand staples of a country — its bread and meat. It 



must become diminished in size of farm, and must be converted into gar- 

 dens, receive the most perfect tillage and fertilization to make it profitable. 

 He illustrated, on the black board, by figures, the comparative values of 

 the lands and their crops, showing mathematically, that an acre at $5, 

 giving Indian corn at thirty bushels, worth fifty cents per bushel, is but 

 S15, while gardens, at Aharsimus, Jersey, near us, of only five or ten 

 acres, being carefully cultivated, make money. The gardeners from them 

 carry loads of vegetables to market and return to the gardens with loads 

 of manure always. They raise vegetables that cannot bear, well, long 

 transportation to market, and other crops like carrots and others, giving 

 vast yield per acre. They can sell all the cabbages to spare for our south- 

 ern markets. They cannot grow apples, or corn, or wheat, or rye, or oats, or 

 hay ! They can raise seeds of all, and when of best kinds, sell well. 

 When I first raised the Stowell ever-green corn on my farm near Newark, 

 I sold the seed at the rate of S32 a bushel. Seed of our late Bergen cabbage 

 can hardly be bought for $10 a pound. The best touls and all of them 

 must be had, and mules or horses taught to work in drills. Where I have 

 them work, a single well taught mule with a " wecder," doing more work 

 in the root fields in one day, than forty men with hoes can do. I had once 

 20 men, and more ; what with high pay and some barratry, I did not profit st 

 much as I now do, on more ground, with my all sorts of tools, and severk 

 men. I keep the iceeder mocing, not so much to kill weeds already growr 



