No. 216.] 791 



J. D. Williamson. I observed in Santa Martha, in South America, 

 irrigation has been practiced more than a hundred years. They never 

 apply any manure to such lands. The water let on for a short time, 

 and not suffered to stand, fertilizes the soil abundantly. In Peru, they 

 let water stand upon the field but a few minutes, where they have 

 put in a thimble full of guano in small holes near the corn. By 

 letting water stand a few days on land covered with cactus and sen- 

 sitive plants, the land is cleared, for these plants all die and are 

 plowed in. 



Mr. Pike. A field adjoining my farm was a wretched swamp. The 

 owner was a judicious man ; he drained it completely, and had rich 

 grasses on it. It did not cost him half a dollar a rod, or he never 

 would have done it. This field afterwards went into other hands, and 

 now the swamp is restored, and the rushes are growing finely. 



The Chairman gave his own views of drainage and irrigation, 

 which, as they are of some length, and highly interesting, we have 

 •deferred till next week. 



Chairman. If that man would subsoil the land deeply, the water 

 ■would doubtless then find its way to the drains. 



Mr. Wakeman. I was appointed a committee to consult Col. Tra- 

 vers, of Paterson, on the subject of his premium for the best essay 

 on the Linen Manufacture of our country. I rise to report progress, 

 and that Col. Travers will make out a suitable prospectus of the pro- 

 posed essay. 



Mr. Wakeman called for the reading of the remarks of the Long 

 Island Star, upon the Agricultural College and Experimental Farm, 

 proposed to be established by the State and the Institute. They were 

 read. 



Chairman. Gentlemen, you have all often heard of cattle said to 

 weigh some 4000 pounds: I wish to see an ox approaching this great 

 weight, and as an inducement, I now offer, through the American 

 Institute, a piece of plate worth sixty dollars, or, if preferred, sixty 

 dollars in cash, as a premium to be given to the man who shall pre- 

 sent at the twenty-first Fair of the Institute, a Steer or an Ox, weigh- 

 ing three thousand Jive hundred pounds or more, the weight to be 

 determined by a committee of butchers. 



