Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 595 



on a farm nearly adjoiuiug mine. Mr. Halliday introduced the 

 buffalo four years ago, and as a neighbor I should rather condemn 

 the experiment. They have become very troublesome to the adjoin- 

 ing farmers. It requires a fence eight feet high to keep them in their 

 own fields. There have been some crosses made, and, as remarked 

 in that letter, is a decided improvement. It is really fine. I doubt 

 if they are available for the farmer to work his land with, they ai-e 

 naturally too wild. 



How TO MAKE Hot Beds. 

 Mr. P. T. Quinn. — Dig out the earth from a pit of the size pro- 

 posed and eighteen inches deep. Fill with horse manure for six 

 inches ; this should be warm with ferment. Over this for six inches 

 spread manure that is now hot with fermentation and add a layer of 

 earth of an inch or more. Then a layer of heated horse manure, and 

 on that six or eight inches of good rich garden mold. Fork this over 

 two or three times. Fit the cold frame over it, the slope to the south 

 Let it be a day or more till the earth becomes well warmed, Mark 

 off the rows and put in the tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, q^^ plants. 

 Cover at night, if it is cold, with straw matting. Open for three 

 hours in a pleasant day for ventilation, but be careful not to let cold 

 wind blow in. The temperature in a hot bed should not be lower 

 than seventy-five "degrees. If the plants are yellowish, they need 

 more air. The object in putting in the manure so carefully in layers 

 is to secure a regular and prolonged warmth. 



Home Made Opirii. 

 Mr,^. O. "Wilson of Uxbridge, Yt,, addressed the club on. the advan- 

 tage of raising our own poppies. He has been engaged in opium 

 growing for five years, and has derived great profit from it. He says 

 a farmer can raise from 300 to -iOO pounds per acre, worth in ^ the 

 drug-stores from $1,500 to $3,500. In 1867 he planted three-eightlis 

 of an acre with poppies and made IdT pounds of opium, and sold it 

 for nine dollars a pound. Another year fi'om a space of ten paces by 

 five, he took sixty-eight dollars worth. He gives tlie following rules 

 to guide those who wish to go into the poppy business. 



1, Plant in rows thirty inches apart, and drop the seed eight or ten 

 or twelve inches apart, from three to six seeds in a hill ; then do not 

 cover more than an inch deep, 



2, Then hoe them once before you weed them ; the second time 



