AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 437 



Dr. Waterbury — I am interested in this question because it 

 was I that took the ground that lignin is not digestible, but I 

 did not contend that it may not be taken into the stomach of 

 cattle with impunity. I can, and will, at a future meeting, show 

 pieces of the coarse silex-coated butts of corn stalks that were 

 taken from the intestines of cattle, several months after they 

 were swallowed. The fact is that tliat part of a corn stalk that 

 is indigestible in its whole state will continue indigestible after 

 it is cut, however we may disguise or sugar it over to tempt the 

 animal to swallow it. 



Wm. Lawton — In reference to feeding out hay, I have proved 

 that a bushel of ciit hay weighs five and a half pounds, if well 

 pressed down, and that fed to a cow three times a day, I find 

 amply sufficient, and the cows thrive upon it. That is my 

 present practice. 



The President — A cow will eat wet hay ten times faster than 

 dry hay, and so will an animal eat moistened cut feed mixed 

 with meal, and it may be owing to swallowing with too much 

 rapidity, that a portion of it passes downward undigested. 



CELEKY— HOW TO GROW IT. 



Solon Robinson — I have a letter from S. W. Paine, Johnson 

 Creek, N. Y., wiiich, although unlike the preceding one that 

 gives us some important information how to grow potatoes, is 

 equally important, because it asks how to grow a valuable plant; 

 and it is only by asking questions that answers are to be obtained. 

 Mr. Paine wants to know how to grow celery, and so do I and 

 some thousands of others, and perhaps there may be somebody 

 here wOio thinks it such a simple operation that he has never 

 thought it worth while to tell others, who will see by this letter 

 that somebody else wants to know. The writer says : 



"I most desire to know how to make a bed for an acre or more 

 of celery, which will keep out or prevent the destructiveness of 

 the gnat, fly, or worm, which destroys the young plant wholesale 

 and retail. I suppose that they arise from the fermentation of 

 the manure ; if so, then what mixture will keep them away 1 Is 

 there anything wiiich will serve or take the place of maaure — 

 such as guano, bone dust, &c. 7 What will prevent or stop the 



