proceedings of the farmers' club. 383 



"When to Break Prairie. 



Mr, Wm. Bliss, Davenport, III, says: " With the subject of prairie break- 

 ing, that sod may rapidly decay, people differ, but I have learned by an ex- 

 perience of more than forty years that in this latitude between the first of 

 June and tenth of July is the best time. I have examples to prove this.'' 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — I have also had some experience in breaking prai- 

 rie in every month of the year when the ground was not frozen, and I would 

 rather have one acre broken in June and July than two acres in April and 

 May, a-^d than three acres in October and November. I have seen sod that 

 was turned in November three years afterward unrotted. 



Death of Alexander Vattemare. 



The Chairman called the attention of the Club to the information just 

 received of the death of this distinguished Frenchman, who was an earnest 

 advocate for improvement, and when he was in this country attended seve- 

 ral of our meetings, and manifested an active interest in all that we were 

 doing for the improvement of American agriculture. The death of such a 

 man is a great loss to the world, and is worthy of notice from any body of 

 men with which he has been in any way associated. Gentlemen will recol- 

 lect him as the person who instituted the system of national exchanges of 

 public documents, maps, books, and historical pictures. The library of this 

 Institute is indebted to him for several valuable works. 



Dr. Holton spoke of M. Vattemare as an old and esteemed acquaintance. 

 He knew him in Paris, where he labored eight hours a day for many years 

 in carr3ang out his great purpose. Many thousands of volumes of public 

 documents, valuable works of the history of the world, which were lying 

 molding upon shelves or in boxes, in libraries or public oflBces, in all 

 countries, this man had put in motion by his great system of national inter- 

 changes. He also alluded to the fact that the idea was first presented to 

 his mind in this country. He came here as a distinguished ventriloquist, 

 and while here made the acquaintance of Josiah Holbrook of Boston, who 

 came to New York in 1836. From Mr. Holbrook he became acquainted 

 wifh the system which he had originated, of exchanging small cabinets of 

 minerals between the different district schools of the country. He had 

 encouraged a love of study of mineralogy among children, and encouraged 

 them to collect specimens of all the minerals in the vicinity of each. These, 

 with the assistance of their teachers, were properly labeled and sent to 

 other schools, often in distant parts of the country ; and this system was 

 undoubtedly the origin of the great geological survey of the State of New 

 York, and perhaps of several other States, to the very great benefit of agri- 

 culture in all parts of the country. M. Vattemare saw at once a great 

 utilization of waste material, and immediately set about a still greater 

 utilization, that of the waste literature of the world. This was the origin 

 of his system of national exchanges. It was he who originated the great 

 American Library now open to all our countrymen in Paris. His labors, 

 too, have laid the foundation of many other libraries. He also established 

 schools for the poor in Paris, similar to the Ragged Schools in London or 

 the Industrial Schools in this country. Mr. Holbrook was engaged in the 

 same great work in Boston at an early day; but his energies were mostly 



