276 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



fruit, and in climbing the young trees to feel after the fruit in the dark, 

 they have broken down the limbs till the trees are nearly ruined. 



" Now, gentlemen, having stated a few of the enemies that make farm- 

 ing an up-hill business, which ought to be all the way down hill, with 

 pleasure and profit, I will thank you heartily if you will tell me how to get 

 rid of any or all these enemies, from the cabbage flea up or down to the hu- 

 man animals, that steal my pears. Sometimes I think of running away 

 from them all, and trying my fortune at Hammondton or Vineland, but it is 

 hard to be conquered, and compelled to flee. I love farming ; can bear 

 with insects, birds, skunks and turkeys ; but when I see that my currant 

 bushes have been carried off, and my cherished pear trees have been rob- 

 bed of their half-grown fruit by humans, I imagine I feel something as the 

 boy did, when he wanted to say, 'darn'em,' ^ 



" Please give me your advice, and if there is a spot in this nation where 

 an honest man can obtain a living by honest industry on a farm, and not be 

 robbed by loafers and other vermin, tell me where it is. 



" I consider the reports of the Farmers' Club of vast importance to the 

 agriculturist. 



" In one of your reports last spring, Prof. Mapes is reported as saying 

 that he had a carrot-weeder that weeded and combed the weeds out of 

 carrots, and with which a boy 12 years of age and a trained mule could do 

 as much as a hundred men in the ordinary way. Will you tell us the name 

 of the machine, where it can be found for sale, and the price ? I inquired 

 for it at the largest agricultural warehouse in Maine, but could learn 

 nothing of it. 



Prof. Mapes said that the carrot-weeder was no myth, and its practical 

 operation, as seen by a good many of the Club, proves it no humbug, and 

 agricultural warehouses in New York know what it is, if they do not in 

 Maine. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — I think the farm of Mr. Hacker must be in a bad 

 condition and neglected. All farmers are troubled with their pests, the 

 soil must be attended to and must be kept in good order, and have these 

 pests destroyed, he must be a negligent farmer. As to the aphis in cab- 

 bages, they are hardly ever found upon any but stunted broken down 

 plants. 



Prof. Mapes. — There are two kinds of club foot in cauliflowers, and in 

 the whole Brassica tribe;, one is principally caused by hyridization, the 

 other is by the use of hog-pen manure — on Bergen Hill, Communipaw, they 

 are able to grow cabbages year after year. 



Mr. John G. Bergen said that such men deserve success, and if they fail 

 and acknowledge their failures, and tell the cause as this one has, let us 

 inquire if there is any remedy. In his cabbage experiment he describes 

 one of the most troublesome pests we have, and for which we have sought 

 a remedy in vain. It is not his fault that he failed to grow cabbages, since 

 no one can guard against these insect enemies. 



The best cultivators with us do not plant the cabbage on the same soil. 

 Sometimes they allow three or four years to elapse before they plant the 



