150 TEANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



that they have abandorsed the attempt. This writer says he has tried 

 "binding in small bundles, putting- the bands as near the tops as possible, 

 and also the plan of setting it round a pole on forks, and the result is about 

 the same. The earliest sowed corn cures the easiest. The difficulty is in 

 keeping- it sweet after it is packed away for winter. Although supposed 

 to be well cured, it often retains moisture euougli to cause it to mold. He 

 finds the best way to keep it is to pack it with straw layer by layer, He 

 wants to know if any one has had experience in the use of salt in cnring- 

 corn-stalks. Some suppose it injurious instead of beneficial, as it tends to 

 keep them damp, and dues not help to cure it except in such large quanti- 

 ties as to be injurious to cattle. 



Mr. Solon Robinson, — I approve of the method of packing cornstalks 

 with straw, but disapprove of the use of salt. 



Ashes as a Manure. 



The same writer asks, what in the opinion of the club, ashes are worth 

 as a top-dressing for meadow, where hay sells for' $20 per ton. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — Many of the club who have had experience in the 

 use of ashes, con&ider them worth twenty-five cents a bushel upon any 

 land in the vicinity of this city. They may be pi'offtably applied to grass 

 land at the rate of twenty bushels per acre. 



Mr. George Bartlett said that he had seen the effect of ashes upon land 

 twenty years after the application. 



Mr; Wm. S. Carpenter said that there was a great difference in the 

 qiiality. Those from hickory wood are worth fifty cents a bushel for many 

 purposes on the farm. For potatoes, ashes are almost invaluable. 



The chairman asked the opinion of the club as to the value of leached 

 ashes. He used 200 bushels year before last upon potatoes, without any 

 perceptible advantage. 



Mr. George Bartlett replied that he might have used the ashes upon soil 

 already sufficientlj^ supplied with potash. They are apt to be of the least 

 advantage upon clay soil. 



Mr. Solon Robinson said it is certain tliat they are advantageous upon* 

 the sandy soil of Long Lsland, as farmers there are willing to pay the cost 

 of ashes in Canada West and transportation all that distance. 



Mr. Martin E. Thompson mentioned the advantag-e of leached ashes upon 

 Long Island and a crop of potatoes this year, 315 bushels per aci'e. 



Grape Vine Worms. 



Mr. A. Gilbert, Tipton, Indiana, says : " I found on my vines several of 

 the worms with the parasite cocoons stuck all over them. I put one under 

 a tumbler, and a few days after there was a large number of small black 

 flics in the tumbler; they were three-sixteenths of an inch long, large head 

 for the size of the body, body slim and two hairs from the tail. To be 

 gure that they came from the cocoon, I took out the worm and cut off the 

 top of one of the unopened cocoons, and out crept a fly like the others," 



