Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 513 



schoolboy can give a good guess at how these two producers will 

 stand in a few years. Other things being equal, one will be sure 

 to make his way, in more senses than one; the other may come out 

 right if he be lucky, and work hard enough with his hands to make 

 up for his disadvantage in working uncertainly. Illustrations might 

 be multiplied to show the value of good weighing apparatus as part 

 of a farmer's outfit. In experimenting with different systems of 

 feeding; in ascertaining the weight of grain per bushel; in know- 

 ing how many pounds a ton of fertilizer contains when bought 

 from dealers — in a hundred ways, the implement will more than 

 pay for itself in a fetv transactions. The fact that comparatively so 

 few possess such an apparatus is a suflScient reason for introducing 

 the subject to the Farmers' Club. 



Col. Henry S. Olcott. — The Orange county farmers are not mail- 

 ing more than seven per cent on capital invested. 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — The trouble is they base their calculations 

 on double what their farms are worth. 



Dr. Hallock. — This is important; we want to get over the habit 

 of guessing. If science is good for anything to ascertain the actual 

 facts, we want it. 



Prof. Nash. — In farming, every expense should be taken into 

 account. We should consider that laud is expensive, even when 

 not in actual use. One farm may produce as much as another and 

 all the while be going through the process of exhaustion, whilft 

 another will be brought into an increased fertile condition, but bft 

 no more profitable. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter hoped the pjiper of Mr. Fitch would be 

 published, as farmers often suflered frauds in the weight of grain, 

 hay, beef, &c. He knew an instance of a man who weighed after 

 seven millers, and found but one of them had just weights. He 

 said a nominal ton of coals would, if driven on a good scale, often 

 be found weighing no more than 1,700 pounds. 



In this connection, Fairbanks &. Co. exhibited Shaler's family 

 scales. The weight is indicated by a finger moving on an index 

 plate. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman, to whom the subject had been specially referred, 

 then read a 



REPORT ON VjU»OR STOVES. 



The committee to whom the vapor stoves — exhibited to the Club 

 by C. M. Young, patentee — were referred for trial, submits the 

 following report: 



flNST.] 33 



