206 Transactions of the Amehican Institute 



tales tlie curing and drying of tlie fodder. After the large butts of 

 corn stalks have been crushed, they will become sufficiently dry to 

 stack in a few days, whereas, if they are not crushed, several weeks 

 will be required to dry out the large stalks. 



" In conclusion, your committee feel themselves quite justified by 

 the remarkable value of this invention, in speaking of it in terms of 

 the highest recommendation. A great draw'back and discouragement 

 in raising large crops of Indian corn has been the amount of heavy 

 and monotonous work required in stacking, husking, and housing the 

 Btalks. This machine wholly masters the difficulty. One day's active 

 running of the national busker will, as we are convinced from the 

 performances we saw, turn out five hundred bushels of ears and two 

 corresponding piles — one of stalks and outside husks, the other of. 

 clean inside husks. The gearing and other parts of this machine are 

 simple and strong iii»their make, not easily broken, nor soon worn 

 out. The bearings, instead of being immovable, are fitted with pads 

 of gutta percha, so as to yield to the pressure of foreign substances 

 that might get into the machine. We are disposed to class this 

 invention in the \erj first rank of those numerous combinations of 

 which American genius has been singularly fertile, the object of 

 wdiich is to harvest our enormous crops of the great cereals." 



The r€^3ort was accepted without dissent. 



Maple Trees. 



Mr. James Lobdell, Longedy, Sullivan county, N. Y. — I thought I 

 would try an experiment on three trees to see how much they would 

 make, and I got sixteen pounds of sugar and two quarts of molasses. 

 I think ten pounds might be made from a tree eighteen inches through. 

 I lost half the run of the three trees, being unwell, for I have had the 

 rheumatism for fifteen years, and have had to go on crutches. There 

 is a difierence in the sa]) and flavor of different trees, as well as in 

 quality. God has planted this tree for the use of man, to show his 

 great power and infinite wisdom. And now how do men use it ? 

 Not so much as the Virginia wood-peckers, for they peck in, and if 

 the sap suits them they tap the tree so much they kill it. Some 

 people here tap 200 trees and get 200 pounds of sugar, and think they 

 do well, but I think they ought to get 2,000 pounds. I think the 

 trees could be set when young for fence posts, say three to a rod. I 

 would sell thousands at a cent each, if folks would come and get them. 

 If I was young and had a farm and did not have these trees, I would 



