170 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the condition of soil and increase its powers of production than any other suh- 

 stance known to me. Practical and theoretical men think they fully under- 

 stand the varieties of lime, as well as the chemical principles upon which 

 depends its influence, but I can assure them many dark clouds will have 

 to be removed before our knowledge becomes complete. I am now going 

 to my farm, where leisure will be allowed me to enquire, think, and make 

 experiments, that may assist to remove the mist which now hovers over 

 this and numerous other branches of agricultural chemistry, particularly 

 the wonderful connection which is well known to exist between geology and 

 agriculture, and if any satisfactory light gratifies my exertions, the Farm- 

 ers' Club shall reap the benefit. 



Mr. Fuller exhibited noxious weeds, Canada thistles, mullens, chick- 

 weed, oxeye-daisey, couch-grass, which drive useful grasses off" the field, 

 and sorrel ; all of them foreigners, imported f-om time to time. 



Mr. Provoost, *n answer to questions. How he manured his vineyard ? 

 replied, with night-soil and plenty of pure sand! 



Mr! Meigs. — Prof. Mapes has long stated the rationale of the sand. As 

 a mechanical divisor, roots easily make their way through it, and every 

 grain of sand becomes coated with organic manure, which the spongioles 

 take off with facility very suitable to their beautiful character, — spongioles 

 resembling the ever moist points of rootlets, — each grain of sand yields up 

 its organic coat to their suckers. The rootlets which appear at the foot of 

 our Indian corn, when they approach the ground, begin to drop water on 

 the spot which they mean to enter. In that way, like the moist nose of a 

 dog, they soften the ground that they may easily penetrate it, and so also 

 do our common earth ivorins 1 



Mr. C. H. Liiicnthall exhibited a lemon, of twelve inches circumferance, 

 one of many an one tree in his conservatory, on the bank of the Hudson 

 river, where he has expended about two hundred thousand dollars on about 

 fifty acres of land, conservatories, &c. 



Mr. Doughty, of New Jersey, has given the club some corn, grown from 

 Mexican corn by him, in Jersey. It is a handsome, white, pearly grain. 

 Subjects for next meeting, " Noxious "Weeds ; origin, spread, and how 

 to be rid of them," aiid " Injurious Insects." 



Club adjourned. HENRY MEIGS, Secretary. 



May 30, 1859. 

 Mr. William Lawton, of New Rochelle, in the chair. 

 Mr. Meigs read the following translations and extracts, made by him 

 since last meeting, viz : 



[Revue Horticole, Paris, April, 1859.] 

 GARDENIA CITRIODORA. 



The genus Gardenia is composed of shrubs and trees, originally from 

 Asia and tropical Africa, and Cape of Good Hope. We have a large num- 



