762 [Assembly 



Mr. Wakeman presented a paper on the potato, from that indeffi- 

 tlgable and amiable friend of agriculture, Alexander Walsh, of 

 Lansingburgh. 



He said he had been to his knowledge, for a long course of years, 

 an ardent and unostentatious worker in the cause of agriculture. 

 Few know how much we are indebted to his steady, persevering 



exertions. 



He was, as I have understood, the leader in starting the CnMra- 

 tor, a periodical whose benefits are everywhere acknowledged. 



And even now, debilitated with a broken constituton, his zeal is 

 unabated. He employs his remaining strength to the extent of his 

 powers, in the same great cause We are continually hearing from 

 him by letters, by presentations to our Club, and through the press. 

 I feel that a high tribute of respect is due to Alexander Walsh. 



J. D. W^illiamson. I have just returned from a visit to the South. 

 I carried with me a collection of seeds made up by the Secretary of 

 this Club, and when I distributed them among my friends there, they 

 promptly undertook to return others that might be valuable here; 

 unfortunately I lost the greater part of them in the explosion of the 

 steamer A. N. Johnson, on board of which I was a passenger. 



I found in Tennessee a field of rice on highland, some fourteen 

 hundred feet above the level of the river. This presented an extraordi- 

 nary crop. By measurement, nearly as we could, the crop must 

 have been at the rate of two hundred and fifty bushels per acre. 

 This field is on Walden's Ridge. The seeds had been sown in drills. 

 I present a specimen of this rice to the Club. I present also Moscow 

 beans. These were not many years ago brought from Russia, by 

 Senator Whitesides, of Tennessee, he found them in the Botanical 

 Garden, at St. Petersburgh. They flourish in Tennessee, and are 

 highly esteemed, not less so than the Lima. The pods of the Mos- 

 cow, you see, contain more than a dozen each, of beautiful white 

 beans. I present also sweet potatoes and yams, the acorns of the 

 white oak of Tennessee, of extraordinary size, and of which perhaps 

 twenty bi-shels fall from one large oak. The small ones on the 

 ground are eaten by swine, the large ones sprout in the spring and 

 the rootlets begin to penetrate the ground, and in this state the swine 

 are very fond of them, because the process of vegetation has rend- 

 ered them sweet and palatable. I present a turnip, one of a crop on 



