220 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



Mr. Pell. — Bees are stationed at the holes to fan with their wings, so as 

 to keep the queen bee cool. He described the copulation of the queen. 



H. L. Young, of Poughkeepsie, exhibited apples and desired to know 

 what name they have in pomology. They are very free from worms, the 

 tree a bountiful bearer. He will give grafts of it. It bears every year. 



Mr. Pell. — It is probably originally from the Greening, but our apples 

 are mixed up so that we count some 800 varieties already. Naturally, 

 apple trees bear biennially, because its bearing is generally too profuse to 

 bear annually and perfect fruit buds for the next year. The tree will last 

 200 years. 



Prof. Nash. — Why should we not have apples plenty, every year, 

 although the trees may live less long ? 



Mr. Pell objects to that system. The pear is liable to injury from cur- 

 culio which perfects itself in it. 



Mr. Fuller. — The curculio pierces it, deposits a worm which leaves the 

 fruit, and is not perfected in the pear. 



Prof. Nash. — Insects attack the fruit of trees which have more or less 

 disease, in preference to those in perfect health. 



Peter W. Wendover laid on the table ears of sweet corn, flint, and 

 others from his farm in Jersey. His object is to show that by his method 

 corn can be grown with smaller cobs than usual, with heavier corn on them. 

 Common corn weighs about fifty-four to fifty-seven pounds per bushel, 

 while mine weighs sixty-one pounds per bushel. I grow it in d?-ilh, and I 

 think it does better than in hills. 



President Pell read his paper on drainage in part ; will read the remain- 

 der at next meeting. He illustrated his plans upon the black-board. 



Prof. Mapes. — I want to get rid of the stone drains and have tiles in 

 their place. Pioots of plants obstruct water-ways in a remarkable manner 

 occasicmally, by an excessive mass of them ; but all ?-oots hate clay; never 

 enter it, or a clay pipe, if possible, especially that containing fcetid lime- 

 stone. Drains require for their best effects on soil, to be open at both 

 ends ; and at the upper end they should be kept open by a sort of chim- 

 ney, or bit of pipe or other tube, to let the air which enters at the lower 

 end escape at the topi where you will ordinarily find it strong enough to 

 blow out a lighted candle. This produces fine efiects in the land, by 

 ceration {■Axrmg'ii); it renders the temperature of it warmer. I get my 

 drains dug preparatory to fixing the pipe, for twenty-five cents a rod, 

 which makes my cost of drains per acre, about $40. When the well known 

 William Cobbett was here, he had, for a time, a farm on Long Island, and I, 

 as a boy, was with him for a while. He planted rows of turnips, and that 

 the turnips were superior in eight rows on each side of a drain. Drained 

 land shows it better after the first year. I get as good drainage at eighty 

 feet apart as forty. Five feet deep makes it better than twenty by tliree. 

 The proffessor illustrated this on the black-board. I use an iron wheel 

 resembling a cheese with its contents out. This has a little plow, cutting 

 two inches at a time ; the earth is carried by it to the surface at every 



