Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 453 



Mr. Horace Greelej. — Nothing will do liis swamp land much good 

 till he ditches and drains it. Then lime is a more suitable application 

 than plaster. 



The Doty Peuner. 



This invention was shown bj the originator Mr. M. Dotj, 32 

 Cortland street, New York. A tube seven or eight feet long, made 

 of sheet-iron galvanized, has a hook on one end and a sharp chisel 

 resting on a spring, pushed by a ramrod so,as to pass [across the face 

 of the hook ; this is laid on the limb to be cut, and the ramrod driven 

 up by a sharp push. It works faster and with more precision than 

 any other pruner. 



Preserving Fence Posts. 



Mr. T. Kogers, Port Leyden, N. Y, — I would also like to know 

 from the Farmers' Club the cheapest and best preparation to preserve 

 the ends of posts that are set in the ground. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — First let them be well seasoned. Set the 

 ground end in hot tar and let it boil fifteen minutes. When cool 

 cover with coal tar, thickened with ground slate or ground brick. 

 The boiling stiffens the albumen and causes the pores to absorb tar. 

 The coating prevents the action of moisture. But this treatment of 

 green posts would do very little good, and perhaps mischief. A 

 boiling in lime-water is also beneficial. Timber that is first water- 

 logged and then well dried lasts well, because the water soaks out the 

 acid that starts the decay. 



Shallow Plowing in a Dry TniE, 

 Mr. Chs. Ilartlock, Clinton, Mo., asks about the depth to which a 

 prairie sod should be turned. 



Mr. Horace Grreeley. — The depth at which a prairie sod should be 

 cut by the plow depends on the length of the grass roots. They 

 must be broken in such a way that "both ends will die, that which is 

 lifted and that which remains below. In many cases this depth may 

 not be over three or four inches ; but this has nothing to do with the 

 general question of deep tillage, about which so much that is false 

 and mischievous has been said in this room. I consider it absolutely 

 wicked for speakers to foster tlie lazy and ruinous practice of planting 

 our great crops on a surface stirred but three inches deep. I have 

 traveled some this summer, and in Virginia 1 saw 10,000 acres that 

 will not yield five bushels to the acre. I saw acres on acres that will 

 not give one sound, big ear. On some soils where the roots get down 



