300 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ducted with tlie costly steam and other machinery of Mcchi or any other 

 great moneyed man until the millennium. 



Solon Robinson. — I am satisfied that the correct method of treating all 

 manure is to put it in solution in tanks at the barn, and send it to the field 

 by steam power, just as has been repeatedly described here as practiced 

 by Mr. Mechi and others in England. Upon any farm, level or hilly, 

 where the amount of team work to haul manure is large enough to justify 

 the first outlay, there is no doubt in my mind that steam power is the 

 cheapest of any that can be used, and the time will come when carting 

 manure will be looked upon as a very slovenly way of farming. It will be 

 found far more economical to dissolve it where it is made, and send it to the 

 field through pipes, by a stationary engine. The people that come after 

 us will look back upon this age of the world as we do upon the dark ages 

 of the past, and wonder how it is possible that we could have been so stu- 

 pid as to cart manure with oxen and horses, when it would be so much 

 better aiid cheaper done by dissolving it, and using steam. 



Mr. Van Houton, of Paterson, thought the application of coarse manure 

 tended to keep the soil porous, and would be more productive than when 

 fed with liquid manure. A neighbor used flax on a field to great advantage. 



Wm. Lawton advocated the old practice of applying manure in bulk. 

 He was afraid of these daring innovations. 



Prof. Nash. — It is very difficult to get people to understand the use of 

 liquid manure. The writer of the letter read to us don't appear to under- 

 stand the theory of liquid manuring. Manure applied in a liquid state 

 must be very much diluted to enable him to spread it over all the land. 

 And he cannot do it to effect in the manner he speaks of, with troughs. 

 It costs in England $100 an acre to prepare the farm with pipes and en- 

 gines to send liquid manure to the field. I have not much doubt of the 

 economy of this method of applying manure. 



The Chairman said that he was satisfied that the time would come when 

 an opinion, difi'erent from that now common about applying liquid manure, 

 would prevail. 



FLOWER CULTURE. 



This question having been some weeks on the docket, was called up. 



R. G. Pardee. — I urge all to try to raise seedlings. A lady sent to 

 Boston for some seeds, and out of twenty-five cents' worth, she obtained a 

 great number of valuable verbenas, beside other flowers. Some of our finest 

 flower.s are so perfect in the flower that they do not produce perfect seeds 

 without destroying the flower. This is the case with the Aster — the centre 

 must be plucked out to give room for seeds. The finest flower in nature 

 is produced from a seed too small to be seen by the naked eye. It grows 

 two feet across. This is the Rajjlesia. If a lady can exc.el in the pro- 

 duction of a single flower, she will have a stimulus to go on improving. 

 It is this educated love of flowers that has been the cause of producing the 

 fine flowers that now adorn the world. 



