AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 449 



of lime, carbonate of lime, magnesia, or any oilier plant ingre- 

 dient had passed through the animal economy and should then be 

 applied to nourish plants, it would give a greater product than a 

 substance of like chemical constitution, but less fully refined 

 organism; that there was a regular progressive refinement in the 

 ultimates, from their first departure from the original rock, to 

 enter into the constitution of plants and animals, each time being 

 more improved, and capable of sustaining a higher growth of 

 vegetable. 



Dr. Waterbury differed from the views of Prof. Mapes, and 

 offered some remarks. 



Extracts by H. Meigs. 

 CHINA SIX HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 



Peaches of two pounds weight. Pears of ten pounds weight. 

 Pears are found now in Fo-kien by chief oflScers of the East 

 India Company, as large as a wine decanter. De Guignes and 

 Van Braam call them Beurre andibndante — very large and excel- 

 lent. Rice, Millet and Panicum yielded one hundred for one. 

 Grain enough for a supply of three years in case of loss of crops 

 by inundations, violent rains, locusts, worms, etc., saved by the 

 Emperor. Trees planted on both sides of public roads. Officers 

 of rank to see all roads in order. A religious opinion awarded 

 long life to every one who planted trees. 



Post office. Ten thousand buildings at the stations at every 

 twenty-five to thirty m.iles. The post office buildings large and 

 handsome, hung with silk and provided with entertainment fit 

 for kings. At each station four hundred good horses in constant 

 readiness. Even mountainous districts remote from main roads, 

 like buildings, horses, etc., and the land above them all culti- 

 vated to supply the station. In all this the Emperor excelled all 

 other governments on earth. 



Mr. Meigs — Agriculture, strange to say, is forever lapsing, like 

 some religionists, from grace ! Even requiring aid from the best 

 men in every age to keej) man up to his work ! Go ahead and be 

 happy. 



You ask me to say something of the Chinese sugar cane. So 

 far as all the authorities ancient and modern go, I find this 

 sorghum saccharatum to be a production of the temperate zone, 

 while common sugar cane only flourishes in the torrid zone ! This 

 peculiarity then gives as much soil of the earth suitable for it 

 out of the torrid zone as there is within it, and a great deal more. 

 In China, six hundred years ago, it was cultivated extensively up 



