354 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



my scrap book. Being a farmer's wife, and loving out-door employment, I 

 have superintended the garden, and have taken especial pains to save the 

 earliest seed, from the largest and best vegetables which we raise. For 

 some five or six years past I have saved my whitewash, after house-clean- 

 inp-, and used it to sprinkle on the vines to expel the bugs, and have always 

 found it effectual ; being careful not to use it too strong. And for potato 

 vines, I have no difficulty in expelling the bugs, by sowing on ashes, when 

 the dew is on, or after a rain. Two or three applications have to be used" 

 generally. I wish to make some inquiry, if it would not be inconvenient' 

 to mention it at some subsequent meeting ; I would like to see it discussed. 



" I, last fall, purchased. a camelia ; I kept it in my sitting room, the buds 

 grew finely, the upper bud had began to expand, and just as I thought I 

 should have a splendid flower, it blasted. I then removed it to a room 

 where the air was less heated, and two other buds began to open finely, but 

 before they had half expanded, they seemed to have remained stationary, 

 and now they are closing up. Could any one show the cause and a remedy, 

 I should be highly gratified." 



Mr. Pardee stated that it was almost impossible to grow camelias in the 

 dry atmosphere of our stove-heated rooms. The same result follows almost 

 all the attempts to grow camelias in warm rooms. 



Mr. Cavenach. — If the lady will keep her camelia in a room where the 

 temperature is pretty evenly in the neighborhood of forty degs., she will be 

 able to get perfect flowers. 



A FARM PUMP. 



J. D. West exhibited and explained the construction of his anti-freezing 

 iron pump. In ordinary farm pumps the chamber of the pumps is placed 

 below the platform. The house, or cistern pump, is prevented from freezing 

 by an air chamber, that surrounds the chamber in which the valves work. 

 He also took the pump apart, and explained its construction, which gave 

 great satisfaction to the audience. He also explained how, by attaching a 

 hose to the nozzle, it operates as a small fire engine. 



Mr. Harrold stated that he had one of the pumps, and 70 feet of hose, 

 through which he can throw water with great ease. 



Mr. Doughty, of New Jersey. — I have one of these pumps, and I take out 

 a little pine plug in the fall, that lets the water that is above the platform 

 fall back, and it never troubles me in the least about freezing. 



INSECTS ON FRUIT TREES. 



Mr. Smith, of Lebanon, Ct., stated that he was well satisfied, that a man 

 of Massachusetts, has invented a remedy for all insects that climb trees. 

 The trees are encircled with an iron trough filled with salt bitterns water, 

 that catches and kills all that gets into it. The iron troughs cost from 50 

 cents to SI. 50 each. 



John Harrold stated that this plan will not cure the curculio, as that is 

 a flying insect ; and it is becoming more and more destructive, not only to 

 plums, but pears, peaches, &c. He mentioned a case of two plum trees, 



