PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 247 



fence with hemlock {Abies Canadenais). Like disappointment has befallen 

 almost every one who has tried to make live fence in this country, particu- 

 larly in using' forest trees for hedges. Yet men stand up here in this Club 

 and gravely recommend farmers to fence tiieir land with hemlock trees, 

 which with a pair of shears they arc to dwarf into hedge plants. The 

 thing is simply ridiculous. Besides, no crop can be grown near a cedar or 

 hemlock hedge, and not many things will grow near a hedge of any kind 

 that is made of large trees ; and it is notorious tliat an osage orange hedge 

 absorbs all the strength near it in a light soil. In England, the owners of 

 land are digging up hedges on this very account. Yet here this Club 

 spends two hours of argument, trying to prove that the worst plant in the 

 world for hedges is the best. 



Mr. Cavanach corroborated this statement, by a report of a hedge of 

 white pine in Brooklyn that nothing would grow near, and that land 

 around evergreens was generally unproductive of any cultivated crop. 



Barley — How it is Sown in Russia. 



Mr. Erhard Smidt, who is evidently from the country he speaks of, 

 though he writes now from "High Place, x\ndover, Henry county, Illinois," 

 gives the following items, from which all grain growers may get a useful 

 idea. We give it in his own forcible language. 



"The farmers in Courland, Russia, are sowing the barley late in thii eve- 

 ning and bring it under before the next noon thinking that the crop will 

 be better than when the seed is covered immediately. Reason : the dew 

 of the night shall make the grain soft, and so it gets a better start. See 

 Schwarz, Anleitung zum practischen Ackerbau. 



" One other case : 



"A farmer could not get the sown barley covered an evening before the 

 Suntide holidays, and the seed was lying for two days and three nights 

 uncovered. The barley was given afterward a heavier crop than all the 

 other, Sprengela Monatschrift. 



"Nothing said about the influence of the moon." 



A Great Crop of Mustard. 



Mr. Smidt, the writer of the above, says that his crops of English white 

 mustard seed last season, was 12,000 pounds, and ho would like to sell it 

 direct to some mustard manufacturer, and then he thinks \i, would be a 

 profitable crop. One of the greatest difBculties that western farmers labor 

 under, he says, in the necessity of employing agents, or middle-men, to sell 

 their crops to the consumer or manufacturer. 



Location and Cultivation of Grape Vines. 



Mr. Solon Robinson read the following report of remarks made by Dr. 

 Bull, the originator of the Concord grape, which he made at a late agricul- 

 tural meeting at Springfield, Mass., which contain some useful information 

 to all grape growers. 



" He said that he was born in Boston, but ill-health compelled him to 

 choose a home in the country. He had located on a hill-side in Concord, 

 and for twenty-seven yeai's had been experimenting with grapes. He had 

 tried almost every variety that had any reputation, and in numberless in- 



