AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 605 



soutli b)' east and west, 500 feet the first, and 750 feet the second, 

 with four other transverse lines of glass, making in the whole 

 4000 feet in lengtli of the glass, besides a great number of smaller 

 glasses for ornamental plants. Mons. Kegel conducts us first to 

 the palm glasses, five; the middle one of the five is 77 f^set high. 

 Here we admire a Strelitzia Augusta, 33 feet high, with leaves 

 from 23 to 33 feet long, reaching the vault above, A cinnamon 

 tree, 50 feet high, the Cinnamomum Reinwardtii. The very rare 

 Copernicia-hospita. We ascended an iron stair case to a gallery, 

 63 feet high, and had a fine view of the whole garden and adja- 

 cent country, with St. Petersburgh and its 1,000 gilded towers 

 and domes. We saw the immense steam apparatus, which keeps 

 summer here throughout the long rigorous Russian winter. 



The Secretary read a communication from our president, Mr. 

 Pell, whose farm detains him to-day, viz : 



FENCE POSTS. 



Robert L. Pell. — Our subject reminds me of the immense 

 amount of capital employed in the United States for the repair 

 and construction of fences, and if it were not for statistical facts, 

 which cannot be doubted, my assertions to-day would appear 

 fabulous; nevertheless it is true that the common fences that di- 

 vide fields, and form boundaries on highways, have cost the United 

 States 1,350,000,000 of dollars. These unpretending monu- 

 ments of human industry cause more than one-third of every far- 

 mer's indebtedness, and still there appears to be a perfect furor 

 for fences. The pastures and fields are enclosed, and then di- 

 vided and subdivided into paddocks, gardens, yards for poultry, 

 calves, colts, cattle, &c. ; and this is not all, the house must then 

 be surrounded by a post and picket fence, and, finally, the once 

 beautiful farm pi^sents the appearance of a chess board. AI. 

 those subdivisions are certainly useless; fields are divided into 

 one, three and ten-acre lots, that would be far better if allowed 

 to remain in one parcel, and if you ask the farmer why he does 

 it, his answer will be that it is for the convenience of fall feeding 

 his stock, generally consisting of three cows and a couple of 

 heifers, which plan, whether he have more or less, is erroneous , 



