266 Transactions of the American Institute. 



discussion on tomatoes. 



The table was crowned with a quantity of " fine tomatoes," about 

 the size of the peach tomato, which is a new variety. Mr. Doty 

 stated that he had tested the earliness of this variety, and found 

 that the fruit will ripen some eight or ten days earlier than the 

 common red tomato. 



Dr. J. E. Snodgrass. — The tomato is an excellent fruit. Veiy 

 few people really appreciate its value as a tonic among our most 

 delicious articles of food. Medical men have learned that the 

 tomato contains a medicinal principle similar to mercury, which 

 has a very excellent effect on the liver, and it is also a valuable 

 alterative. There is one method of cooking the tomato, which is 

 seldom practiced, but which ought to be adopted, namely, broiling 

 them as beef or mutton is broiled. Let them be broiled without 

 breaking the sldn; and after they are thoroughly cooked, open 

 them, and add butter and salt. Cooked in this manner, tomatoes 

 make an excellent dish. 



BUCKWHEAT FOR STOCK. 



Mr. W. Pettingill, Hartwick, Otsego county, N. Y. — I send a 

 package as a sample of a kind of buckwheat raised in this vicinity. 

 It goes by the name of merino buckwheat. Its qualities are, a sure 

 crop every time, and its great yield. It never fails of a good crop 

 like the other kind. My crop last year was 67^ bushels to the 

 acre — a sample of it I send to you. It does not make good flour 

 for man to eat, but is relished by all kinds of stock and poultry. 

 The flour is yellow and a little bitter. It has been raised in 

 this vicinity over twenty years. The other kind of buckAvheat is, 

 with us, a little like a lottery. Perhaps we get a crop, and per- 

 haps we don't. We prefer to buy what flour we want to eat, rather 

 than run the risk of sowing and not reaping. It is a little earlier 

 than the other kind, and can be sown any time after spring work 

 is done, for it don't fail to fill in midsummer. We generally sow 

 it from the 10th to the 20th of June. The blossom is the same 

 color of the leaves, so you never notice it being in blossom. 



Adjourned. 



