Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 237 



The Hon. T. Peters, of western ISTew York, having spent tlie winter 

 in Florida, said that there were great advantages for a poor man 

 there, since he has few or no preparations to make for the winter. 

 The best business to engage in is gardening. The raising of Irish 

 potatoes and sugar will be very profitable. 



The reporter must add that folks may have another fact, that he 

 has a family for next door neighbors who have lived in Florida for 

 several years, on the St. John's river, and they state that there is 

 such an immense number of fleas in the sand, that if one undertakes 

 to carry a measure of sand a half a mile, a considerable portion will 

 hop away — and this at all seasons. 



A Display of Pine Cones. 



Mr. J. E. Warren, lately from CalifQmia, late editor of the Wool 

 and Stoch Journal, was then introduced, and laid before the Club 

 numerous and remarkable specimens of pine cones and pine seed from 

 California. He showed the cone of the Pinus Colteri obtained on 

 the peak of Mount Diabolo, and of the Pinus Sabiniana found in the 

 same difficult height. The cones of the sequoya gigantea or mam- 

 moth pine, are remarkable for their small size. They are not so big 

 as a hen's e^g, while the cones of the colteri, the sabiniana and the 

 sugar pine and the ponderosa are all of great size, some over two feet 

 in length. He had found a few specimens of the P. Bractiati, very 

 rare and almost impossible to be obtained on account of the enormous 

 grizzly bears which infest the remote and lonely peaks where tbey 

 grow. 



Inventions. 



Mr. K. Nutting, of Eandolph, Yt., showed an improved fanning- 

 mill and separator, which was operated in the club room, and excited 

 much interest. His explanation of its workings was accompanied by 

 some excellent remarks on the importance of sowing good seed, and 

 good seed only. He thinks we should be as careful of kinds and 

 qualities in the seed of grain as in the breeding of cows and horses. 

 His invention enables the farmer to do this by giving him a screen 

 in his fanning-mill, which will divide the best grain from such as is 

 inferior and unfit to be sowed, and also all seeds of weeds, while it is 

 at the same time a cheap, practical fanning-mill, costing the farmer 

 but forty dollars. 



A model of Warner's sulky revolving rake, made by H. Fay & Co., 

 of North Williston, Yt., was shown and commented upon by Mr. S. 



