No. 133.J 253 



most succulent kind, with some of tlie clover, \\ould stand rich 

 and heavy, from seven to fourteen years, and that every year, 

 without being disturbed by a plough. From 30 to 50 head of 

 cattle kept upon it almost constantly the summer through, with 

 occasional top dressings of gypsum composts of the barn yard, and 

 all putrescent refuse matters Avhich are knowai to make the best 

 food for the grasses. This land too, it was pretty well known 

 possessed the requisite quantity of inorganic or, mineral matters, 

 such as calcarious, silex or sand and clay. The manure dropped 

 upon the soil, by the cattle feeding upon it, was an important 

 item. The grass standing thick and high, would protect it from 

 evaporation by the sun and the rains soon wash them about the 

 roots with the various top dressings, and the carbon of the atmo- 

 sphere and the different manures, and such as the grasses them- 

 selves contained and made, would retain these ferteliziug ele- 

 ments for the use of the grass plants as they wanted them. New 

 Jersey possesses some very good land, but that on the seaboard or 

 a good deal of it, has always been thin and meager, mostly sand, 

 very little organic manure used, and of the inorganic to correct 

 and modify the sand. Within a few years rich marl beds have 

 been found in many sections of the lands thus located, containing 

 considerable potash, some lime and clay, this marl easily accessi- 

 ble has been much used and the soil much impr<jved by it, the 

 crops of grain and grass greatly increased, larger stocks kept, and 

 triple or perhaps quadruple the quantity of barn yard manure 

 made for the land. This was getting the organic and inorganic 

 manures from the natural, true, and cheapest sources, much bet- 

 ter than to purchase them in distant places at considerable cost 

 and some hazard. Rich fields of clover are now to be seen which 

 produced hardly enough to keep animals alive, much more to 

 fatten or keep them in good condition. 



Mummy wheat with its linnen wrappers (transmitted to the 

 Institute by the Honorable W. Stanley, of Congress) was distribu- 

 ted among the members, some of whom supposed, from the ap- 

 pearance of the grains that it would vegetate— notwithstanding 

 it has been entombed probably twenty-five hundred years. 



The thanks of the club was unanimously voted to the honora 

 able donor. 



