Reports of Committees. 



AGRICULTURE. 



The committee on agriculture of the American Institute beg 

 leave to report: That they have great pleasure in informing the 

 Institute that the Farmers' Chib, which is placed under their imme- 

 diate direction, is increasing in interest. There are now in attend- 

 ance at its meetings, representatives from six of the principal papers 

 published in our city, so that the reports of the discussions and 

 communications reach every part of our country. 



One important feature of the Club, during the past year, was 

 the trial of several farm implements, among which was tlie trial of 

 horse hay forks, in Westchester county, N. Y., which occupied two 

 days, and was of great interest, showing l)y actual experiment the 

 working of some twenty different modifications of this implement, 

 w^hich has come into use within the past few years, and one that is 

 deemed of such vast importance to the farmers, when we take into 

 account that the hay crop in the United States, according to the 

 last census, amounted to over nineteen millions of tons. 



The committee feel confident in asserting that the greatest results 

 are realized from deep tillage, and by this means larger crops are 

 produced with much less expense; and we think that a person who 

 cultivates ten acres twenty inches deep, will grow rich in eight 

 cases out of ten, while he who cultivates twenty acres ten inches 

 deep or less, will not often succeed in farming pursuits. Farmers 

 iu.g&neral will be found to have under culture twice as many acres 

 as their capital or ability, if consulted, would dictate. 



Among our American farmers, manures, and the best modes of 

 application, are not well understood, and we are too apt, as a class, 

 to give a great many acres a scanty supply, rather than giving a 

 full supply to a few acres. By a rule adopted last December, it 

 was decided to have a paper read at each meeting of the Clu]), and 

 the following gentlemen were appointed to prepare them: 



Farm Buildings — Mr. S. Edwards Todd. Germination of the 

 Potato — Dr. F. M. Hexamer. Pasture Lands of the South — Mr. 

 Joseph B. Lyman. Clover as a Fertilizer — Dr. J. E. Snodgrass. 

 Rasjjberry — Mr. Thomas Cavenach. Mowing and Reaping Ma- 

 chines — Mr. James M. Allen. Manures — Mr. P. T. Quinn. Import- 

 ance of Planting Forest Trees — Mr. A. S. Fuller. Necessity of a 

 General Railroad Law for the Benefit of Agriculture — Dr. Isaac 

 P. Trimble. 



