586 Transactions of the American Institute. 



Mr. D. B, Bruen. — Dignified or not, I find profit in it. Anything 

 that a man does to make good food abundant and cheap is not undig- 

 nified ; in fact, it is in better taste to line the human stomach with fat 

 chickens andfresli laid eggs than to wrench it with ipecac, and physic 

 it with calomel. People often ask how eggs are kept from suunner 

 to winter. I have never had any trouble about it. There are two 

 modes, and I have succeeded with both, either to pack them, little end 

 down, in fine dry salt, or dip them in melted lard so as to coat them 

 thoroughly. Salt gives less taste than lime or oats. 



G. S. Shaeft'er, Amherst, Lorain county, Ohio, asks of the club 

 some instruction as to sap; the way to get the most from trees, the 

 situation of trees that yield the most, and on which side to tap. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — The sap season is from the time the spring sun 

 begins to warm the trees to the depth of some inches, till the buds 

 are considerably swollen. It begins sometimes in the latter part of 

 February, and lasts till about the 10th of April, but varies greatly 

 each year. Tlie first sap that flows early in the season is the best, 

 and gives the highest flavored sugar. The best sugar trees are those 

 which grow where the roots are considerably protected by stones or 

 by running deep in the ground ; also those which have a wide spread 

 of foliage. There is a good deal of diflerence in the richness of sap 

 in diiferent trees of the same grove, and in the same tree at different 

 periods of the sugar season. Deep boring does no more good than a 

 hole of three inches, for the flow of sap is mostly from the wood 

 nearest the bark. It hurts a tree very little to tap it, for as soon as 

 the sap is needed for growth the character of.it changes, the wound 

 becomes clotted, and the flow ceases. The sugar is what would 

 make tlie starchy part of wood. It is, in solution, forty pounds of 

 sap on an average holding one of sugar. At the opening of the 

 season a tap on the south side yields much the most. But after the 

 air becomes quite warm, and the heat is felt in the ground, the sap 

 will flow from a cut on the north side as well. The distance from 

 the ground of the incision is a matter of little importance. 



Comstock's Spadek and Digger. 



Mr. C. Comstock, of Mihvaukie, Wis., the inventor of the " Rotary 

 Spader," was introduced by tlie chairman, and read the following 

 paper : 



" By the successful introduction of the thrashing machine, reaper, 

 mower, and corn-planter, and, in short, broad-gauged implements for 



