No. 144.1 375 



the top with hay and boards, to shed oif the rain and snow, and 

 being in large masses, will keep a long time without wasting ma- 

 terially. The great error in building ice houses is making them 

 too small. If a family wish a supply of six tons a year, they 

 should build a house big enough to hold thirty or forty tons, and 

 fill it the first good season, and keep the old in over from year to 

 year, adding enough for current use each winter. In that way 

 the small quantity needed in summer will keep— the large mass 

 keeps it cold. It is only expensive in the first filliDg. 



This subject will be continued at the next meeting, and several 

 other interesting ones. 



Chester Coleman, of Brooklyn — Mr. Chairman, I have recently 

 met with a statement (although I never saw it published) which 

 to me, as a fact, seems rather singular, in relation to drought. We 

 are all familiar with the universal complaints of drought through- 

 out our country during the past season of this year. In 1838, just 

 sixteen years ago, a similar drought, equally severe, prevailed 

 during the summer months ; and a similar drought also extend- 

 ed over the country during the summer of 1822, just sixteen 

 years prior, probably within the recollection of us all. And I 

 am informed that these visitations of severe drought have been 

 traced back to the years 1806 and 1790, at regular intervals 

 during four periods of exactly sixteen years — but how much fur- 

 ther these periods of equal time have extended, I have been una- 

 ble to trace. I have heard it remarked that periodic droughts 

 were as necessary to the country as the varied changes of the sea- 

 sons, for the recuperative energies of nature to the productions of 

 the year. Perhaps some one more philosophic than I am may be 

 able to throw additional light upon these facts. 



Subjects ordered to be continued : 



Building ice houses. 



Uses of salt and lime in agriculture. 



Washing fruit trees with alkaline washes. 



The chairman presented samples of the Livingston pear and 

 Beurre D'Aremburg from his farm. The club repeated the opi- 



