AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 263 



lay more eggs and require less feed than any otlier variety. They 

 are small bluish birds, with their combs lopped down quite on 

 one side, and often hang over their beaks. They were called 

 Leghorns by the person from whom I obtained them. But any 

 fowl requires to be well fed to lay well. Especially should this 

 be the case in winter. Meat scraps are excellent occasionally 

 for fowls. I fed my fowls well through the winter, and they 

 commenced laying in February, and have paid me handsomely in 

 consequence. I hope your Society will be frequently enlighten- 

 ed by useful contributors, that it may do much good in the way 

 of disseminating sound instruction in farming. 



Prof. Mapes — Our Westchester friend writes a pleasant letter, 

 but he is mistaken about our advocation of plowing — tliat is with 

 a turning plow — 18 inches deep. Mr. Waring stated at one 

 time that he was ploAving his land at Chapaqua to that depth. 

 Many soils may be plowed 18 inches to advantage. Some prefer 

 to go down half an inch at a time. My idea is to run a subsoil 

 plow in all clay land before turning it up to the sun. This will 

 always prove a benefit, unless where the soil is replete with sul- 

 phuret of iron. But the atmosphere will change in one year the 

 sulphuret into sulphate of iron. 



The Chairman, Rev. Samuel White, left the chair, and William 

 Lawton, of New Rochelle, was called to it. 



Rev. Mr. White — I have just returned from a tour as far as 

 Iowa. I have passed through several states, and carefully ob- 

 served the condition of the great crops of our country. I have 

 thought that speculators have had a hand in the unfavorable re- 

 ports spread through our press as to the coming crops. I have, 

 within the last three weeks of my journey, been deeply pleased 

 with the appearance of the fields, and the zeal with which our 

 noble farmers are at work to make more land come into bearing, 

 and better tillage too. Sir ! I found one farmer who had obsti- 

 nate lands to plow, who was using a heavy plow and eight yoke 

 of oxen, and plowed it deep ! 



■ Orange Judd wished to correct a false impression as to his re- 

 marks on hilling corn and potatoes. He never did or could, from 

 his own experience, hill the crops, except in cases where it was 

 known that too much water might prove injurious to the crop. 

 In wet fields hills were proper, because the earth in the hills, by 

 capillary attraction from the surrounding wet, would always 

 draw as much moisture as was good for them. 



As to the supposed great value of carrots, as food for stock or 



