Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 259 



never known a crow to destroy bii'ds nests, and it is a great fallacy to 

 say that lie destroys corn. I always make a liargain with him in the 

 5]Dring, to give him all the corn he will eat if he will let the planted 

 alone. They dig worms all the while, and the complaints farmers 

 make abont insects will increase, if they continue to kill the crow. 

 Skunks are also most useful in destroying beetles. In Schoharie 

 county they cannot raise hops except by the help of these animals, 

 and the farmers value them as much as tlieir cows. Crows pull up 

 corn when worms are in the hill, but the}- never eat it unless they are 

 starved. A peck of corn will save ten acres. 



Mr. Isaac P. Trimble. — They do pull up corn, but it is to get that 

 which is soft for their young. Hard corn they will not touch. 



Mr. Wm. Lawton. — Building large poultry yards is absurd. If 

 poultry is fed on cracked corn they will not destroy anything in th« 

 garden but insects. 



Glauber Salt as a Fertilizer. 



Mr. George E. White, of Isew York city, sent several boxes of 

 G-lauber salt, which were given to various members of the Club, to 

 be used on cabbages and turnips. It is said to be an effective manure, 

 applied in small quantities to 3'oung plants, not more than a table- 

 spoonful being used on one cabbage-plant. The gentlemen who 

 took the boxes will use and report result. If found a useful applica- 

 tion, it may be of much use to the farmer, as it can be had for thirty- 

 five dollars a ton Ijy the quantity, or two cents a pound in small 

 parcels. 



Mr. A. Preterre. — The chemical name is sulpliate of sodium. It 

 -can do no harpi in small quantities ; and in certain soils, and for 

 special crops, should, from its composition, be a useful application. 



Florida. 



Mr. T. C. Peters spoke as follows, on the attractions of that 

 tropical State : 



" My remarks here two weeks ago seem not to have been properly 

 understood, or rather, they were so brief that something more may 

 be proper on this occasion. Sugar-cane is quite as easy of cultivation 

 in Florida as Indian corn at the north. The cane has to be renewed 

 in some localities once in three or four years, in others only in seven 

 years. It is very productive. Almost every farmer has his ' cane 

 patch.' Before the war, some as large as fifty acres. Usually from 



