44 FARM ECHOES. 



with numerous valuable cuttings, and felt in duty bound 

 to give them my personal attention. They were all 

 planted with the utmost care, perhaps too much of it, 

 for not one of them took root, so far as could be seen. 

 It did not occur to me to ask the members of the Chinese 

 Embassy, when they honored me with a visit a year or two 

 ago, whether they had heard of, or seen, before leaving 

 China, any of these cuttings or the results of them. I had 

 planted them years previously upside down, and if they 

 appeared anywhere, it must have been at the antipodes. 



I am, certainly, not alone in my aversion to garden 

 exercise, for Mr. Warner's account of his " Summer in a 

 Garden," convinces me that he has not spent a second 

 one there, and never will. A record kept one summer 

 showed that twenty-four different kinds of vegetables, 

 and thirteen varieties of fruit, including peaches grown in 

 the open air, were raised on my premises. 



The numerous letters written me after the publication 

 of the proceedings at the meeting of the State Board of 

 Agriculture, held at New London, December, 1877, at 

 which I was unexpectedly called upon to explain the re- 

 sults of my experiments in blasting with dynamite, lead 

 me to suppose that a repetition of my remarks will not 

 be out of place here. 



The Board having been called to order by Hon. E. H. 

 Hyde, Vice-president, Mr. T. S. Gold, the Secretary, said : 

 " I have been unable to present to the audience the ques- 

 tions from the question-box for lack of time, but there is 

 one question which I promised to present, and as I see a 

 gentleman before me who is able to answer it, I will read 

 it now. 



