334 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



increase. A company has already been formed for carrying the 

 project into execution in Kansas. About 4,000 shares, of $5 

 each, are taken in the company j and the pioneer party are to 

 start in a few days from New-Yorl^, to select a site. 



NEW METHOD OF PRESERVING SPECIMENS. 

 Dr. Dummer, of Jersey City, exhibited a small glass tube with 

 an entymological specimen enclosed, and stopped by means of a 

 blow-pipe, which made it air-tight, forming a vessel well adapted 

 for preserving specimens of insects without spirits. The doctor 

 does not intend to patent the invention, but desires it to become 

 known to entomologists and naturalists. 



CURING GRAIN— SPROUTED GRAIN. 



Dr. Waterbury introduced a communication from a Connecticut 

 farmer, describing a change in the method of curing grain, which 

 had obtained within the last few years in Connecticut. Instead 

 of putting grain first into the open or Dutch shock and afterward 

 into the cap-shock or small stacks, the sheaves are simply set up 

 on their buts, near enough to each other to prevent them from 

 being blown down, and allowed to stand in these groups of ten 

 or twelve until they are dry enough to be made into mow. 

 Notwithstanding what the agricultural journals say about the 

 sprouting of standing grain in the ear, I must, said the writer, 

 doubt it; for after forty years' experience with grain crops, I 

 have never known it to happen to uncut crops unless the grain 

 had blown down and lodged. In order to grow, grain must be 

 more than wet ; it must be in contact with something to encourage 

 the formation of roots, and must be, to a certain extent, excluded 

 from the air. 



The club then adjourned. 



H. MEIGS, Sec'y. 



Farmers'' Club, August 21 5^, 1855. 



Present — Messrs. Griffing of New-Jersey, Lodge do, Hays, 

 Leigh, Field of Brooklyn, Hite of Morisania, Lawton of New- 

 Rochelle, Clubb, Van Wyck, Vail, D. Vv'atson of Staten Island, 

 Orange Judd, Waring of Jersey, Dr. Evans of Ohio, Charles 

 Oakley, Addington D. Frye, Joshua L. Pell, Philo S. Mills, J. 

 Payne, Lowe, and others, forty-nine in all. 



Mr. Griffing of New-Jersey in the Chair. 



Henry Meigs, Secretar3^ 



