Proceedings of the Farmers* Club. 648 



January 4, 1869. 



Nathan C. Ely, Esq., in the chair ; Mr. John W. Cn.\MBEH.s. Secretary. 

 Duty on Imported Stock. 



Mr. David Logan, Jr., of Hartstown, Peim., suggested the pro- 

 priety of memorializing Congress for the repeal of the duty on 

 animals imported for breeding purposes. " Mj own experience," he 

 urges, " has been that the importer finds obstacles and discourage- 

 ments enough in his enterprise, without meeting him at the gate-way 

 of his home with a twenty per cent ad valorem duty." 



The Chairman. — This subject has received more or less attention 

 from time to time in some of the newspapers, and it might be worth 

 while for one of our stock men to consider it anew and report. Per- 

 liaps our esteemed colleague, Mr. F. D. Curtis, will take the service 

 upon himself. 



The Ehae Plant. 

 Mr. H. A. Ship, who recently read a paper on the subject of tea 

 culture, forwarded a communication on the rhae plant. It originated 

 in India, is of quick growth, and, in a genial soil and climate, such as 

 may be found in thirty-three degrees each side of the equator, its 

 yield is prolific. It is a kind of withe, and grows to the hight of six 

 to seven feet, or from four to five feet in a somewhat colder latitude 

 than that named, and, in both cases, of a diameter one-half to three- 

 quarters of an inch, and six inches above the ground. It bears several 

 branches out of the same root, all shooting upward like the main 

 stem or first shoot, which may, in some cases, merit that name, not 

 only by the central position of the group, but by a slightly extra 

 thickness. There are no secondary branches on these; so the rhea 

 plant may be said to consist of several twigs or withes, a kind of 

 broom groM'ing out of one root ; therefore, it is curious that it should 

 be called a grass, as it is not identical with the China grass, as fre- 

 quently asserted. Its leaves are few and lanceolate in shape termina- 

 ting in a sharp, hard point. The flower is a delicate blue, and in 

 form somewhat like the cotton flower, but smaller and more numer- 

 ous. They grow toward the end of the twigs, and number five or six 

 on each. The bark, in the linings of which lies the fiber, is, when ripe 

 and fit to cut or pull, of a dark olive color, and when dry and rotted 

 and fit for the brake, of deep Yandyke brown. It is a test as to its 

 fitness for nwnufacture, its beins: hard, dry and brittle. Tlie mode of 



