532 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



hoes, mad^ oi steel of the temper of the common trowel, whose 

 edge will not turn on striking flint, and which were perfectly 

 polished and ground sharp, did twice as much work in a day and 

 better work than our common half rusty iron ones. I have worn 

 out such implements with my own labor. I have dug two spades 

 deep and raked into beds 2,600 square feet of garden in one day, 

 without being overfatigued. I found it unnecessary to use the 

 foot to drive down such a spade. Its fine edge and polish entered 

 full length by the ordinary power of the hands, and that polish 

 prevented soil &c., from adhering to and clogging it. So with the 

 hoe; its sharp edge cuts the stalks or roots of all weeds and killed 

 them, while our common rusty iron hoe merely lugs them out of 

 ground, and they often sui'vive that clumsy method and take root 

 again, as every gardener and farmer well knows. 



I therefore declare, from my long experience, that a good grind- 

 stone, fairly turned, to keep all implements bright and sharp, is 

 fully equal to one able bodied man on the farm, or about (wages, 

 board and all,) five hundred dollars a year. Our Solon, in this 

 excellent sketch of its worth, has rendered a service flilly equal to 

 that of the famous lawgiver of Greece, who was once a small mer- 

 chant, but loving science better, used his mercantile wealth to 

 obtain wisdom. His great saying remains as perfectly true as our 

 Solon's uses and abuses of the grindstone. " Laws are cobwebs 

 to catch the weak, while the strong break through them, and he 

 that can't obey can't command !" 



Mr. George C. Barney, recently from Yucatan, presented some 

 peculiai" dye seeds, (red,) from a shrub like the lilac; also arrow 

 roots from the island of Cosumel, of Yucatan. 



Mr. Fuller, of Long Island, presented pies made out of some of 

 his crop of Dioscorea Batatas. The root cooked by simple boiling, 

 was also introduced by Dr. Wellington, tested and approved as 

 good food. 



Mr. A. 0. Moore, of 140 Fulton street, presented a number of 

 packets of Imphee seeds of ten varieties, enumerated in Olcott's 

 recent work on the " Sorgho and Imphee." It is estimated that 

 some of these may yield over five thousand pounds weight of sugar 

 per acre. 



