AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 585 



April 19, 1858. 

 Present— Messrs. R. L. Pell, Wm. Lawton, Solon Robinson, 

 Horace Greeley, R. G. Pardee, JolinG. Bergen, Judge Livingston, 

 Dr. Wellington, Mr. Culver, Mr. Fuller, Mr. Bartlett— forty-three 

 in all. 



R. L. Pell, President of the Institute, in the chair. 



Mr. Lawton — Our permanent secretary, Mr. Meigs, is absent 

 to-day on account of indisposition, I therefore move that Mr. 

 John W. Chambers be appointed secretary pro tern. Carried. 



Wm. Lawton, of New-Rochelle, said : The Farmers' Club of 

 the American Institute is not a miscellaneous or informal meet- 

 ing, but a branch of the Institute, and the proceedings are pub- 

 lished and distributed all over the world, so that suggestions 

 thrown out here are not alone for the ears of those who attend the 

 meetings, but for those who may read the proceedings many 

 years hence, as they are preserved in the bound volumes of the 

 Institute's Transactions, beside in the daily journals. 



Tlie President said, I have a few remarks to mal^e upon mis- 

 cellaneous subjects: 



I am always amused when I hear my agricultural friends com- 

 plain that their potatoes rot, and that their wlieat and rye crops 

 would have been- exceedingly fine if the severe winter liad not 

 destroyed them through the medium of excessive frosts ; that 

 their corn fields would have presented a magnificent appearance, 

 if the spring had not been so wet as to have prevented early plant- 

 ing, and the continuous rains so detrimental in causing the ker- 

 nels to decay in the ground ; that their ground is clay, and can- 

 not be tilled sufficiently early to mature their crop. Now the 

 fact is, if potatoes rot, and crops fail, summers are too dry and 

 winters too cold to suit the taste of the farmer, it is his fault, 

 as by proper draining, not only low land, but high, may be made 

 to produce remunerating crops, independent of the season, wiiether 

 it be dry or wet. A-11 lands require draining, whether situated 

 on high hills, or in low valleys ; no farmer can raise a crop of 

 wiieat, rye, corn or potatoes, on wet lands, and all farms are more 

 or less so. You must not consider your lands dry because they 

 crack open in mid- summer on the surface j this is no indication 



