778 Tbaxsactwxs oi the Amebic an Ixstitute. 



. Dr. J. V. C. Smith remarked tliat a great mistake is commonly 

 committed in denuding lands of their proper proportion of forest. 

 He had been acquainted with a gentleman who had followed the plan 

 mentioned by Mr. Todd and met with very great success. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller took exception to Mr. Todd's views. The univer- 

 sal protection advocated by the latter would be simply universal 

 destruction. If fruit trees were sheltered in this manner they would 

 leaf out, bloom early, and be cut off by frost. lie had wished a hun- 

 dred times that the cold winds could sweep over his own trees and 

 keep them back until the danger of frost was past. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble agreed with the last speaker. It is well 

 known that winds are not as cold as dead-still air. 



The HexVviest Steer Ever Killed. 

 Mr. Clarkson Taber, Xew York city. — I notice that a correspond- 

 ent calls for the heaviest beef ever killed. Keunion, sent here in 

 1866^ and fattened by T. H. Tripp, of Dutchess county, weighed 

 3,795 pounds, lacking five pounds of 3,800, and dressed 2,-lT5 pounds. 

 I have been nine years in the live stock market, and I never knew a 

 larger animal, and there is no tradition of a heavier one among our 

 Kew Yoi'k cattle dealers. 



Grapes. 



Mr. J. H. Woodburn, Kingsville, N. Y., has a somewhat extensive 

 assortment of grapes, which have been in bearing for from one to three 

 years. Among the varieties a Herbemont, Lincoln, and Lenoir. 

 Kow, whereas there ought, according to catalogue, to be a ditlerence 

 of some weeks in the ripening ol these three. Last season they 

 ripened at tlie same time, the clusters were of same form and size, 

 color and taste, and resembled in all respects the wild frost gra])es, 

 much to the owner's chagrin, and he M'ould know the why and the 

 wlierefore ; " and are these sorts considered valuable ; and are grapes 

 ever known to be affected in color, size, quality, or time of ripening 

 by standing close to other varieties; and do they ever mix as do corn 

 and many other things V 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — The varieties named all belong to the same 

 class, and this fruit are of similar size and color, and if all were imper- 

 fectly ripened it would be difficult to tell one from the other. There 

 is however considerable difference in the shape of the leaves and in 

 the time of ripening, but I fear that the gentleman has been inq)osed 



