248 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



stances had been disappointed. He was satisfied that by experimenting 

 with haidy grapes we should reach something better even than his own 

 favorite bantling — the Concord. We must watch and wait a little longer 

 for the perfect grape. By growing new seedlings in the various localities 

 of the State we sliall finally succeed. The best exposure for a grapery is 

 a southern hill-side ; the best distance, six by ten feet apart ; the best posi- 

 tion, rows running north and south ; the best fertilizers, ashes, bone dust, 

 plaster and sulpiiur ; the best mode of pruning, the spur sj'stera ; the best 

 vine, the native. The grape wanted heat and light. It was a mistake, 

 therefore, to invite the roots down deeper thau twelve inches, and four to 

 six inches would be belter. His best gi'apes grew on a poor hill-top that 

 was plowed and manured as for a crop of corn. He had two acres of grapes 

 in bearing, and the present year sent a ton of grapes to market on the 20th 

 of September, which sold at ten cents a pound, and beside made 400 gal- 

 lons of wine. The Concord has yielded 600 gallons per acre. He has 

 raised in 20 years 104 seedlings from the Concord, 1*1 of which were better 

 than the original. No crop is so easily affected by the odor of manures. 

 Wool waste in a given case had imparted a wooly odor, and guano and 

 night soil their distinctive properties" 



How TO Feed and Grow a Monstrous Hog. 



Mr. Allen B Benham Dryden, New York, writes, Dec. 14, that he has 

 a hog estimated to weigh 1,400 pounds. He was three years old last 

 spring, and weighed in February 1,120 pounds ; in May, 1,135 pounds. 

 From that time, he says, till the middle of September I fed him lightly, in- 

 tending only to keep him from losing. His feed last winter was a half 

 bushel of ears of corn a day, with dis^iwaster for drink. The rest of the 

 season, up to Sept. 15, his feed was two quarts of corn meal in the morn- 

 ing and two at night, wet up with buttermilk. (He used about twelve 

 quarts of buttermilk per day.) Since Sept. 15 he has eaten about the 

 same quantity of milk, and four quarts of corn meal in the morning, seven 

 ears of corn at noon, and four quarts of oat, barley and pea meal, wet up 

 with buttermilk at night, with the exception of about a week he has taken 

 his food without cooking. I tried cooking his food about a week, and he 

 did not eat it as well as the raw meal. He weighed on the 23rd of Sep- 

 tember last 1,249 lb., and on the 8th of October, 1,216, that being a gain 

 of nearly 2 lb. per day. Mr. Benham would like to know if any one has 

 ever made a heavier hog ? 



Mr. Solon Robinson says that reports have been published of one or more 

 that weighed 1,450 lb., but he has not the reports at hand, and so he asks 

 the question, what is the weight of the biggest hog ever known ? 



Prepared Paper for Mailing Plants. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller exhibited specimens of paper prepared with India rubber 

 and oil. This paper is manufactured at Newark, N. J., and is a superior 

 article to pack plants sent by mail. 



Adjourned. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 



