378 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Mr. Solon Robinson said that he liad used pigeon-droppings extensively; 

 has now forty barrels on hand which he purchased in this city at a dollar 

 a barrel. He mixes three or four times the bulk of muck, leaf-mold, rotten 

 sods, or any good soil as a divisor, and uses the compost for all sorts of 

 crops. 



Soil for Flowers. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The Gardener's Monthly contains the following ex- 

 cellent advice in regard to the best soil for flowers: " Very few understand 

 that an occasional change of soil is very beneficial to flowers in beds, though 

 all know howimportant it is to flowers in pots. There is nothing better than 

 surface soil from an old pasture, taken off about two inches deep, and thrown 

 into a heap with about one-sixth part of old hot-bed dung, partially to de- 

 cay. In addition to this 'staple' item, a smaller quantity of different matters 

 should be gathered together for peculiar cases or peculiar plants. Peat, for 

 instance, will be found very useful for many kinds of plants. This is not, 

 as is often supposed, mere black sand, but a spongy, fibrous substance, 

 from the surface of bogs and boggy wastes. Sand should be collected 

 sharp and clean; the washings from turnpike ditches are as good as any- 

 thing. Leaf-mold is best got already well decayed from the woods. A 

 load or so of well decayed cow manure is a good thing for the gardener to 

 have with him, as all those plants which dislike our hot summers and want 

 a cool soil to grow in prefer it to any other manure. A small pile of hot- 

 bed manure is almost indispensible to a gardener," 



A New Dumping Wagon. 



Mr. J. R. Davis, Bradford, Vt., exhibited the model of a dumping wagon 

 manufactured by Mr. J. W. Nye, Fairfield, Vt., which in the unanimous opinion 

 of those present is a most valuable invention for farmers. A load can be 

 dumped from this wagon, whether it be one of dirt, stones, manure, potatoes, 

 or other material, more readily than from a cart. As a manure dropper, it ia 

 altogether superior to the cart. The wagon bed is divided into four sec- 

 tions. The bottom of each section and a crossboard being firmly united so 

 that the contents of each section can be dumped separately, and these sec- 

 tions are so arranged that they work easily, being no more liable to get 

 out of order than an ordinary wagon bed, and but little more expensive. 

 The very highest recommendations of some of the best men in Vermont 

 who have used this wagon were presented to the Club, who fully agree 

 with them in their opinion of its merits. We, therefore, commend it most 

 heartily to farmers as a valuable, new, labor-saving farm implement. 



Bran as a Fertilizer. 



Mr. J. R. Davis, Bradford, Vt., stated to the Club, that bran had been 

 used in that vicinity as a manure for potatoes, with the most beneficial 

 results. 



Gooseberries — How to Grow Them. 



A Rhode Island farmer sends the following statement in answer to the 



question: Whether English gooseberries can be grown free from milldew? 



"I find no diflSculty here, provided the bushes are protected from the 



