Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 419 



tlie subject Le referred to a comraittce wlio "will give it the considera- 

 tion its merits demand. 



This suggestion was acted upon, and Messrs. Lyman, Gregory, and 

 Robinson were named as the committee. It may be mentioned in this 

 connection that a lady present, Mrs. Devlin, showed a parasol covered 

 with this material, thus affording evidence that it ma}'' be made to 

 answer some good purpose. The cloth made from ramie has the 

 cool, clear look of the best linen and the luster of silk. 



Fisii Breeding. 



Mr. Wm. Ellis, of Princeton, Burran county, 111., wrote in regard 

 to the propagation of trout, and desired especiallj to know if they 

 would be likely to thrive well in " the sucker State." I have, he says, 

 on my place a clear, cool, never-failing spring creek, running rapidly 

 over a pebbly bottom, through a grove of maple, elm, ash, basswood, 

 etc., and could readily construct artificial ponds of one-quarter acre 

 to two acres in extent. I have neighbors with equally good facilities 

 who would occasionally like to indulge in a breakfast of " speckled 

 beauties " such as we used to take fl'om the mountain streams of 

 northern Pennsylvania and southern ISTew York. But will they 

 grow in the "hard" water of this region? Who knows? If you 

 can instruct us, O, ye wise men of Gotham ! to add trout to the many 

 bounties afforded us by the prolific soil of this beautiful part of our 

 country, then shall we be able to send you more pork and be less 

 " hoggish " ourselves. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — There is a gentleman, formerly of Eidgewood, 

 IRew Jersey, but now residing on Long Island, Dr. John M. Crowell, 

 who has had large practical experience in this business, which busi- 

 ness, by the way, is destined to become a very important one. He 

 has raised twenty thousand trout this season in a little race course. 

 I doubt not he will be glad to furnish our western friend with the 

 facts he pines for, ' This plan of raising trout naay fail, not for want 

 of water clear enough, but cool enough. Yet, if he cannot breed 

 trout, there are such sorts as perch, dace and pike tliat he can have 

 in great abundance in his waters. 



Blackberries. 



Mr. G. L. Baldwin, Guiney's Station, Caroline county, Virginia, 

 would know what to do with the thousands of bushels of blackberries 

 which grow wild and run to waste each year in that part of the Old 

 Dominion. " If wine-making be advis^ible, give me a recipe, with 



