No. 144.] 283 



utterly annihilates every grain before it is perfected. This is 

 called the wheat-midge in England. It is the most terrible pest 

 ever encountered by wheat growers. There is no guarding against 

 its attacks. 



The subject for the next meeting, to be held September 5, will 



be " The proper manner of ploughing and winter managing clay 



soils." 



H. MEIGS, Secretary, 



September 5, 1854. 

 Present Prof. Mapes, Messrs. James G. Lawkins, of Sidney, 

 Australia, Solon Robinson, Moss, of Westchester, Dr. Waterbury, 

 Geo. Bacon, Stacey, Merrick, Geo. E. Waring, James Waring, 

 Van Wyck, Vail, Elihu Smith, of Albany, Paul Stillman, and 

 others — nearly forty in all. 



George E. Waring in the chair. 



Mr. Waring desires the club to acept an amendment to his re- 

 cent treatise on agriculture — " The Elements of Agriculture." 

 At page 175 I there say that the average production of the Ge- 

 nesee valley is but 12^ bushels of wheat per acre. I am credibly 

 informed by Hon. B. P. Johnson, of the New-York State Agricul- 

 tural Society, that the average crop of that locality is 19^ bushels, 

 and Professor Mapeg says that the crop of the whole State ave- 

 rages 12^ bushels per acre. Begging publicity to this correction. 



James G. Sawkins, of Sidney, Australia, being requested to 

 speak of the agriculture and of that region, said ; 



I am no farmer, consequently I wish what I say to be received 

 simply as the observations of a traveller — not an express man., the 

 velocity of whose transit prevents his seeing any object with ex- 

 actness, or the sailor^ whose limits of information are generally 

 confined to the harbor he has visited. When I say " traveller," I 

 mean the man who can go leisurely over ten or fifteen miles a 

 day, examining with care and delight the beauties of creation — 

 stop where he finds attraction, whether in the geological forma- 



