No. 124.] Ill 



phate, nitrate, and muriate of ammonia, in nitrate of soda and 

 potash, and in combinations of these ; and in all cases the results 

 were highly favorable. For example seeds of wheat steeped 

 in sulphate of ammonia on the fifth of July, had by the 10th of 

 August, tillered into nine, ten and eleven stems of nearly equal vigor; 

 while seeds of the same sample, unsoaked and sown at the same time 

 in the same soil, had not tillered into more than two, three and four 

 stems. I prepared the various mixtures from the above specified 

 salts exactly neutralized, and then added from 8 to 12 measures of 

 water. The time of steeping varied from 50 to 94 hours, at a tem- 

 perature of 60 degrees of Fahrenheit. 1 found, however, that barley 

 does not succeed so well if steeped beyond 60 hours. Rye grass 

 and other gramineous seeds, do with steeping from 16 to 20 hours, 

 and clovers from 8 to 10, but not more; for being bi~lobate, they are 

 apt to swell too much and burst. The very superior specimens of 

 tall oats, averaging 160 grains on each stem, and 8 available stems 

 for each seed, were prepared from sulphate of ammonia. The spe- 

 cimens of barley were prepared from nitrate of ammonia; they had 

 an average of 34 grains in the ear. The other specimens of oats 

 which were next the most prolific were from muriate of ammonia; 

 and the promiscuous specimens of oats were from the nitrates of soda 

 and potash — strong, numerous in stems, (some having not less than 

 52) but not so tall as either those from the sulphate or muriate of 

 ammonia." 



Dr. Valentine stated that Dr. Chilton had tried these experiments 

 15 years ago, with good success. 



Commodore De Kay, from the committee to whom was referred 

 the Treatise on the Horse by William Youatt, made a report which 

 was read as follows: '• This work has been edited, amended and 

 adapted to the use and service of the United States, by J. S. Skinner, 

 of Washington city. The committee have examined this work with 

 much pleasure, having for a long time felt the want of something of 

 the kind, which in an abridged form, would put our people in pos- 

 session of all the required information on that subject without com- 

 pelling them to wade through a mass of matter neither interesting, 

 agreeable nor instructive. The compiler of the present work seems 

 to have taken especial pains to lop off such excrescences as marred 

 the beauty of the foreign work, and has substituted much useful and 

 interesting matter which will no doubt be duly appreciated by the 

 agricultural portion of our fellow citizens. 



Your committee can hr^rdly hope to do justice to this work with- 

 out occupying too large a portion of the time of the club, and in 

 confining themselves to a concise synopsis of its contents, which is 

 believed to be the object of the reference, if they succeed in callino* 

 attention to the book, they believe more benefit will accrue than the 

 most elaborate treatise would accomplish. The work commences 

 with an introduction by Mr. Skinner, on the Horse in England and 

 America, as he has been and as he is, &,c., detailing the improve- 

 ments of successive ages — the advantages derived from the crossing the 

 breeds — climate — tables of the best racers — rules of the New-York 



