634 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



that tliey are unable to raise without difficultj any other crop. On 

 an average, farmers raise no more than two tons of hay to the acre. 

 By irrigation they could raise from four to six. If irrigated, land 

 worth now from ten to fifty dollars per acre would be worth from 

 8^00 to 8500 per acre. The offal, if carefully collected, would feed 

 millions of fowl. Poultry raised so near market would also cpme in 

 in much finer condition. The same thing would be with lambs, 

 sheep, and other stock. Poultry, like other stock, should be raised 

 at some distance from the city, and the farmers living near the city 

 should prepare them for market. My opinion is that the Farmers' 

 Club should influence the State government to employ highly and 

 practically educated commissioners, paid by the State, to advise the 

 farmers gratis to make the above mentioned improvements, in the 

 cheapest possible manner. It would be of greater benefit than the 

 model farms, as the}^ are local. 



Plaster ox Stkawbekry Beds. 



Mr. B. Y. E. Pratt, Alaska, Kent county, Michigan. — I prize your 

 clu]) reports highly, and receive a great deal of instruction which I 

 wish to put into practical use in working my farm, which is a new 

 one. But I write you more particularly to inquire of the club, or 

 some of its many correspondents who may know, as to the effect 

 which plaster of Paris will have on strawberry plants, which grow in 

 our fields in great abundance, and which some of our neighbors say 

 will be destroyed by using plaster as a fertilizer. Not having experi- 

 ence, I should like to be informed if it is detrimental. If it would 

 be so, if not sown on the ground occupied by the plants, but used on 

 other crops adjacent. I should like to know which kind of soil is 

 better for growing strawberries, a sandy loam, or a clayey soil, both 

 equally well prepared. 



Mr, J. B. Lyman. — The cultivators of the strawberry have never 

 found plaster a valuable manure. Its effect is to grow stalk, not 

 fruit or seed. Applied to ;tields that abound in strawberries it will 

 be likely to make clover grow, and drive out the strawberry, or else 

 it will give you rank leaves and stems, but few berries. The Wilson, 

 the Brooklyn, the early scarlet, and some others, will do well on 

 sandy soils. The Triomphe de Grande will not. It needs a cool clay 

 loam. 



