S51 [ASS^IMBLY 



Mr. Sherman remarked, on tlie great Importance of giviu^- pro- 

 tection to all our little birds who feed on in ects. • 



Gen. Tallmadge. — It is an evil practice of some joung men and 

 boys, to kill the little birdt;. Tiie tame little cowbird is one 

 which follows the plough, and eats the grubs as they are turned 

 out by the ploi.gh share, and has been known to eat them out of 

 the hand of man. 



Mr. Meigs read his translation of a French paper on tea. 



Gen. Tallmadge remarked, that as the tea plant was now estab- 

 lished in Brazil, it is easy fur us to bring the plants and seeds 

 here — but the great difficulty in raising tea for market, has al- 

 ways been in the heavy cost of manipulating the tea leaves. This 

 can only be done where labor is worth almost nothing, where the 

 population is exceedingly destitute. But there is no doubt we 

 have the soil and climate suited to grow tea, and perhaps wo here 

 may invent machinery when required to malce it up as by hand, 

 then it will become a great and valuable ^aple of our laud. 



Mr. Meigs observed, that such machinery would work as great 

 a change as Whitney's cotton gin did, without which cottcn could 

 not be worn except by a comparatively small portion of mankind 

 at this day. 



Judge Van Wyck. — It is pretty much so even now with linen. 



Gen. Tallmadge said there was another plant to tlio necessity 

 of cultivating which he desired to awaken the public attention — 

 that is madder, which can be raised aiuiost as readily as cai^rots, 

 and soils for whicli are found at the south in any rsiquisite amount. 

 MaddfT forms a dye altogether indispensable, and which probably 

 will never cease to be so, and we ought to grov/ not only as much 

 as we require at home, but as much as we can export. 



Mr. Meigs read his translations relative to the new malady of 

 the grape vine, the Oidium from La. lUvnc Hortico'e and Annals 

 D'Horticulture of Paris, 1850 : 



" It is no longer the potato that is a victim of disease — the 

 grape vine now lias a malady hitlierto unknown, v^vaI cf wluch 

 the cause or causeSi and the remedies or preventives arc, as with 



