No. 129.] 353 



Mr. Selleck. — A railroad is contemplated to the Jersey mine. 

 He proposed the Apatite as the next subject. Carried. 



Judge Van Wyck. — The falling off of much of our land owing 

 to bad management, is not so universal as some suppose. The 

 Patent Oifice reports show a great increase of amount every year, 

 or terms of years. Can there be, then, so great a degeneracy in 

 farming and soils, on the whole 1 Wheat pays poorer than any 

 other article that is cultivated by the farmer — his fruit, his 

 grass, dairy, Indian corn, &c. He cannot make money by it, 

 and therefore turns his attention to other things, such as those 

 last enumerated. I wish to enlarge on this point at the next 

 meeting. 



Adjourned to the first Tuesday in September next. 



H. Meigs, Secretary. 



American Institute, ) 



Parmer^s Cluh, Sept.2,\Sbl.l 



Ira B. Underbill, of New-Jersey, in the chair, H. Meigs, Sec- 

 retary. 



About thirty members present from Connecticut, New-Jersey, 

 and this State. 



The Secretary read the following extracts from the Edinburgh 

 Review, of July, 1851. 



Extracts : 



" Modern Chemistry — its progress, &c. — Among the modern 

 sciences which in their nature and progress partake most of the 

 character of the advancing material civilization of the nineteenth 

 century, chemistry holds the first rank. Of tliat advancing civi- 

 lization it may even be said to form a main part or element. 



" One of its special duties is to discover hidden and unknown 

 properties and uses in things — to lay open the unsuspected riches 

 of kingdoms. No branch of positive knowledge can boast a his- 

 tory so full of interest and romance as this, or one which pre- 

 sents a more tempting field for a literary excursion, either to a 



(Assembly, No. 129.] 23 



