AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 249 



we liave stiff, clay soils, we have generally plenty of stone; in such eases, 

 the best drains can be formed with these stone, by making them five feet 

 deep, and one hundred feet apart, and filling in three feet with stone. The 

 value and necessity of drainage, is a fixed fact, and no further experiments 

 are required ; all the farmer has to consider, is economy in the method and 

 adaptation to his position, and the profile of his grounds. 



Except for line fences, or woodland, I would remove division fences 

 upon small farms, and depend upon stall feeding for all my stock ; and 

 thus gradually, by drainage and subsoiling, bring every acre in proper con- 

 dition for the most profitable crops. The word adaptation should be con- 

 stantly presented to the mind of the agriculturist, taking in view, geo- 

 graphical position, facilities for markets, and their extent for various 

 products of the garden and farm ; and it will require but a little reflection 

 to adapt the cultivation of both to the most profitable results. 



In this connection may be considered the rural embellishment of the 

 farm by the proper cultivation of valuable fruit trees, and by the grouping 

 and arrangments of trees and shrubbery, so as to produce ample returns of 

 delicious fruit, for home consumption and sale, and the luxurious enjoy- 

 ment of shade and fragrance, without impairing the productiveness, to a 

 great extent, of the soil which sustains them. 



Much has been said of our " worn out lands," and "exhausted soils;" 

 and when nature has garnered, for ages, her rich deposits of nitrogen, in 

 connection with all the fertilizing properties with which it is always con- 

 nected in cur soils, we have rudely broken in upon those rich treasures, 

 and wantonly and carelessly used them, by the sale of our crops, so as to 

 prepare this beautiful portion of the globe for a desert, instead of a rich 

 and glorious inheritance for our successors. Are we continuing this sys- 

 tem, so unbecoming, and in mockery of the intelligence of the age ? or are 

 there remedies, by change of crops, and compensating principles (if I may 

 use the expression), by which changes may be efi"ected to perpetuate, for 

 ever, the productiveness of all soils for the needful fruits to sustain life ? 



Mr. John V. Brower, of Jersey city, exhibited a sample of pumpkin meal 

 or flour, from a manufactory recently established there. The pumpkin is 

 taken frosldy ripe, subjected to a drying process which extracts all the 

 moisture, leaving all the saccharine, so that when wanted for pies, &c., 

 milk only is added, and no water, making a superior pie. Squash is also 

 manufactured. All the refuse, skins, seeds, &c., are separately treated for 

 feed to stock. 



Solon Robinson. — We have had that before. 



Prof. Nash. — It is not new. I wish, if the Club pleases, to say a few 

 words more on drainage, before we take up the subject of the day. Drain- 

 ing laud constitutes a special study of every acre. No two are i7i all 

 respects alike. A farmer should avail himself of all the knowledge he can 

 get adapted to his particular case. The adopted practice of deep tile or 

 other drainage, costs too much to be done by our farmers. I talked 

 with an intelligent farmer in Buckiughanishire, England, lately, on this 



