Proceedings of the Faemers' Club. ()45 



tons in England at that ligiire. Seven hundred and twenty dollars an 

 acre is beyond all that the cotton or sugar planter can boast in the 

 most high and palmy days of southern 0})ulence. The difficulty 

 about ramie and rhae grass is this : We have no machine in general use 

 that meets our requirements for separating the fiber. Erastus Bige- 

 low, of Boston, has an invention, newly perfected, which will be 

 likely to meet the case, for Mr. Bigelow is about the oldest and most 

 practical of inventors. When he does for ramie what Whitney did 

 for cotton, rich Forida lands will not be hawked in this Club, as I 

 have known within a year, at fifty cents an acre. 



Grasses fok Tennessee. 



Mr. II. C. Whitaker, Xew Market, Tenn, — Has wood land, mostly 

 pine and red oak, with some walnut and black gum. It is quite 

 undulating, and isolated from other timbered land; has a yellow 

 clay subsoil of a calcareous nature, and is completely underlaid with 

 limestone. In conclusion, he would get it into grass, and asked the 

 club what variety would be most likely to succeed. 



Mr J. B. Lyman. — He should not sow timothy, for the hot sun of 

 Tennessee will be quite sure to kill it. If he has the limestone 

 foundation he mentions, there is no reason why Kentucky blue grass 

 should not thrive. Let him buy a mixture of blue grass, red top, 

 orchard grass and white clover. He cannot know beforehand which 

 may eventually take possession of the surface, probably the blue 

 grass. 



Mr. Frank D. Curtis. — The reason that timothy does not succeed 

 in southern soil is because the root is short and round, and dried up. 

 Long, fibrous roots endure the heat much better, consequently 

 orchard grass or red top would answer the requirement. The former 

 is especially adapted to shady places, and red top is also tolerably 

 reliable in this respect. 



Mr. Passmore Howard, of Delaware county, Pa., asked these 

 questions : Will milk of different cows, if churned separately, vary 

 in length of time required to change to butter ? If so, what would 

 be the result, as regards quantity of butter, by churning all together ? 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — I had a talk some time since with S. J, Sharp- 

 less, of Philadelphia, who makes the splendid butter for which the 

 Continental Hotel is famed. He has made many experiments, and 



