american institute 261 



American Institute Farmers' Club, 

 May 28, 1855, 



Rec'd from (probably) Mr. McGowan of India, by the hands 

 of E. Richardson, Esq. : 



Pods and seeds of a soap plant — the pod being very sapona- 

 ceous. 



Seeds of the latropha — which produces an oil useful in the arts. 



Seeds of the Pe-Bo — a fruit tree. 



No mention of it in Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom. 



Solon Robinson read the following letter from a Westchester 

 county farmer : 



Westchester Co., N. Y., 5th Mo. 3d, 1855. 



Friend Robinson : Will thee please to read this letter, Avhich I 

 address through you to the "American Institute Farmers' Club?" 

 and thus oblige an absent though often interested reader of the 

 reports which I find in The Tribune of the sayings of members of 

 that body concerning their experience in the business of farming, 

 as well also as in other matters which are sometimes talked over 

 by the intelligent persons composing the Club. I am an " old 

 farmer," having cultivated the earth, or as I suppose you, my 

 progressive friends would say, the surface of the earth, to the 

 depth of from six to ten inches for about forty years. I continue 

 in that business, in that old-fashioned Avay, not being able to 

 adopt your new method of plowing eighteen inches into the clay 

 or sub-soil in the expectation of increasing the yield of my crops. 

 It is not because I am unwilling to adopt new methods that I do 

 this. I am always ready to meet an improvement in farming 

 with a generous welcome. Experiments I often try; not only 

 such as I chance to fall upon, as I pass along in the quiet pursuit 

 of my own labors, but I not unfrequently am able to benefit 

 largely by adopting the suggestions and discoveries of my observ- 

 ing neighbors. Indeed, I gratefully acknowledge myself in- 

 debted to Prof. Mapes and others of your Society for many very 

 valuable hints. I do not therefore consider myself, ho\^ever 

 much you may differ from me in that opinion, as prone to dis- 

 card everything but '' personal experience." Nor do I wish to 

 be understood as undervaluing in the least my own or others' 

 personal experience. It is a very thorough and eificient teacher; 

 the most so perhaps of any other. It may no doubt be greatly 

 aided by " Scientific Agriculture," but it should not be con- 

 demned totally if it occasionally explode the teachings of fancy 

 farmers, or even some of those who are styled " scientific" agri- 



