172 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



by drought, blight, insects or hard winters, and that no plant should be 

 recommended for hedging- that was liable to fail and leave a man without 

 fence at the moet critical moment. Dr. Trimble said that he could not grow 

 a hedge in Newark, N. J., unless he protected it by fence from stock. An 

 arbor vitse hedge, which some of the members recommend, is browsed by 

 goats and hooked by cows. Mr. Veeder recommended yellow locust, but 

 Mr. Solon Robinson said that that had been extensively destroyed by insects, 

 and so have the various kinds of thorn, and Osage orange and arbor yits& 

 have both been winter killed. Mr. Veeder said that he had been very suc- 

 cessful in growing a screen hedge of white pine, about fifty trees of which^ 

 at ten years old, forms an admirable shelter. 



A Vermont gentleman said that be had been perfectly successful in form- 

 ing a live fence out of stakes of various kinds of wood, cut about 5| feet 

 long, and set H feet in the ground a few inches apart, and fastening them 

 together by weaving in two strands of wire, or by nailing strips on each 

 side. He prefers the wire. He uses stakes from one to three inches diame- 

 ter, and averages twenty-five to the rod; and if they happen to be crooked, 

 takes care to have all the crooked ones together, and set them so as to 

 match together. He alsc^ sets large and small stakes together, so as not 

 to have any weak spots in the line. Perhaps the best wood is the willow, 

 but in wet places the alder has proved excellent. He has used Lombardy 

 poplar, balm of Gilead, lilac and snow-ball bushes. Upon the Conneciicut 

 river bottoms he thinlcs this plan of fencing an excellent one, and thinks it 

 would be on the Western prairies. 



Mr. Enos Stevens recommended that willow, balm of Gilead, Normandy 

 poplar, snow ball be planted in rows, say two feet deep; if planted between 

 November and May, they are sure to live and make a stiff fence. 



Adjourned. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 



October 27, 1863. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair. 



Grapes for a Name — Prunes. 



The first business to-day was the introduction of two sorts of seedling 

 grapes from Mr. David Thompson, Green Island, opposite Albany. 



I take the liberty of sending for your inspection a box containing two 

 varieties of grapes, which are seedlings of my own propagation, and raised 

 in my nursery, which is located, at Green Island, Albany county, N.Y. 



These vines are as yet unnamed; but I think they are worthy of some 

 Nomenclature. If they are found by you as they have been found by the 

 Albany County Agricultural Society, and by all others who have seen them, 

 will you be kind enough to give them their christening, in order that they 

 may be brought to the notice of the public. I said there was two varieties. 

 I have thirty-three varieties of seedlings, on which I took the premiums at 

 the Albany county fair. I wish to call your attention to these two. The 



