Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 647 



the seed. It may be aptly compared to the sucking animal which, 

 when new-born, is incapable of providing its own nourishment, but 

 depends on the milk of its mother. Germination is that change in 

 the seed which fits its contents to feed the young plant. If the 

 plant has reached several inches in height, it has eaten up most of 

 the substance of the seed, and its value as a fertilizer is nearly 

 expended. Partial return of these elements is made by the decay of 

 the little root and stem. If the sprout is killed a few days after it 

 appears, when but two leaves show, it has consumed so little of the 

 substance of the seed that it is still a valuable manure. To the 

 second : You have a right to expect thirty bushels an acre from that 

 land after the superphosphate. If you do not get it, it will be on 

 account of a wretched season, or your superphosphate has been 

 debauched with chalk or ground oyster shells. You may get double, 

 but a third more is the average result of many trials on corn. 



• Poultry. 



The chairman now called upon the committee that had been 

 appointed to visit the New York State Poultry Exhibition last week, 

 to report. Mr. Lyman, one of the committee, gave their report as 

 follows : 



Your committee found at the Empire Rink on exhibition by the 

 New York State Poultry Association the largest collection of feath- 

 ered stock ever shown in this city. In conversation with the owners 

 of these animals, and especially the president and secretary of the 

 Society, we gleaned some facts and reached some conclusions that may 

 be of value to the community at large. We do not find that improved 

 blood and fancy combs or gay feathers in chickens makes a decided 

 uniform difference in the value of poultry. Those who show the 

 most satisfactory account current with their poultry yards do not 

 keep fancy fowls. Yet there is no doubt that breeding to a special 

 end or point lias accomplished for poultry nearly as much as it has in 

 neat cattle. The chief marks of excellence in a chicken are three ; to 

 be a good layer at all seasons, to yield a tender and well flavored 

 flesh, and to fatten rapidly. There is no breed that excels all others 

 in each of these points. Thus, for instance, we have no breed that 

 are in size equal to the Brahmas, in delicacy and fullness of breast 

 equal to the Dorkings, and as egg-producers equal to the Leghorns. 

 To require this would be as hard as to demand of a. eow to be as 

 large breed and fleshy as the Durham, to be as vCoj)ieus of milk 



