428 [Assembly 



dred dollars, add at the end of four or five years, the annual crop 

 will, beyond a doubt, pay more than the entire cost of the estab- 

 lishment. More than two hundred copies of our vinery have 

 been taken. Like houses may, and we hope will, soon be com- 

 mon in our country, and thus supply the people with the deli- 

 cious dessert now confined to a few. Some persons have covered 

 the lower ends of their vines with mats, or other covering, and 

 have found that mice avail themselves of it, and ruin the vines 

 by gnawing them. We cause our vines to be suspended under 

 the glass by wires and strings, at a distance of fifteen to eighteen 

 inches from the glass, to avoid the scorching of the grape leaves 

 by focal rays. 



Mr. Meigs read the following letter from A. Williams, Esq., of 

 San Francisco. He had read the newspapers containing an ac- 

 count of the establishment of the Western World Institute. 



{Copy.) 



San Francisco, December ith, 1851. 

 H. Meigs, Esq.: 



My Dear Sir — I take the liberty to send to you, from the Wes- 

 tern World Institute, a specimen of the Russian bald barley, 

 weighing sixty-seven pounds to the bushel, and twenty-five to 

 fifty patjkages of California native flower seeds, for experiment 

 for yourself or friends, for cultivation in the Northern States. 



Our enterprise is of course very small at present, but we are 

 endeavoring to get on old Ogre's boots; to tr}' to follow the An- 

 ohises steps of our "illustrious predecessor," the American Insti- 

 tute, a slight imprint of which you will see in our circular. We 

 can produce big stories, at all events. Only think of a teamster 

 turning round a two-horse wagon on the top of a stump of one 

 of our trees ! What would Old Wouter Von Twiller say to a 

 cabbage head thirteen feet in circumference ? or an onion weighing 

 twenty-one pounds 1 Sinbad, the sailor, will soon be out of print, 

 and Munchausen be discarded from our libraries. Did you read 

 the address? It is all positively, really true. 



Yours, very respectfully, 

 (Signed) A. WILLIAMS. 



