AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 439 



Dr. Wellington — The uniform custom here is to sell three 

 celery plants together, at about the same price that one brings at 

 Boston, and yet the Boston celery is the best at thr^e times the 

 price. It grows there far superior to what it does in this vicinity, 

 and it grows best upon peat muck. It is only necessary to shade 

 the nursling plants of celery, and not the after growth. 



Prof. Mapes — I have tried a great many experiments in grow- 

 ing celery, and have settled the whitest kinds as the best, and 

 that above all other manures, hair, such as I get from skin-dress- 

 ers, put in the bottom of the trenches, is the best. The young 

 plants I cut back three times, taking care not to injure the crown, 

 to make the plants strong before they are transplanted. I prefer 

 to have celery beds upon an inclination where I can run water 

 between the rows, and I have tried sundry things in solution as 

 fertilizers, but never found anything equal to hair, though old 

 exfoliated horns do pretty well. Decomposed muck, mixed with 

 sand, makes an excellent soil for celery. 



The subject of the day, viz: "The Propagation of Fish," being 

 ■called up, tlie President, Mr. R. L. Pell, read the following paper 

 on the habits of fish : 



Fishes are vertebrate oviparous creatures, having a heart consist- 

 ing of one ventricle and one auricle. They are capable of breathing 

 water, their air bladders performing the duties of lungs, and the 

 gills of respiration. The water taken in at the mouth, instead of 

 entering the stomach, passes through the gill apertures and 

 escapes, leaving behind the air contained in it, to act upon the 

 blood. Fish are of about the same specific gravity as the element 

 in which they live, but by means of their bladders, which they 

 can dilate or contract at will, they vary their gravity, and descend 

 or rise with the same ease that a bird does by expanding or con- 

 tracting its wings, and are able to pass through the water with 

 great rapidity, using as propellers members called pectoral, ven- 

 tral, dorsal, anal and caudal fins. The bodies of a large propor- 

 tion of fish are covered with scales, and their teeth are the organs 

 of prehension. 



I have eight ponds on my farm, all artificial, and fed by springs; 

 they are, with two exceptions, fourteen feet deep, and contain 



