AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 395 



Mr. Field said that lie had learned some facts upon the subject 

 of preserving pears, from Mr. Earry, of Rochester. He puts his 

 pears into barrels, and leaves the barrels out doors, only covered 

 by loose boards or straw until cold weather, and then put away 

 in cool rooms. He mentioned several interesting facts about the 

 want of knowledge among those who grow pears, as to how to 

 keep the fruit. He lately saw a lot of Winter Nellis, in Fulton 

 Market, for sale at ^1 per basket, when they were really worth 

 $12 per basket, because the owner did not know that these pears 

 were good for anything but cooking. 



Mr. Field also suggested thepropriety of cultivating asparagus 

 upon drained salt marsh. A Holland gentleman thinks the whole 

 area of Newai-k meadows would grow great crops of asparagus. 



Mr. Wheeler, of New Haven, happening to be present in the 

 repository with some of his newly patented Volcanic Arms. 



A member said that farmers often wanted such arms to pro- 

 tect themselves from wild beasts, and exhibited a pistol and rifle 

 constructed by the " Volcanic Repeating Arm Company," of New 

 Haven. With the rifle, upwards of twenty bullets may be sepa- 

 rately discharged in twenty seconds, or with incredible quickness, 

 and without removing the instrument from the shoulder. Many 

 members thought the invention most admirable. 



THE USE OF MUCK. 



Solon Robinson said that for the purpose of getting somebody 

 up to talk on this subject, he should take the position that digging 

 muck was only valuable to the farmer so far as di-aining swamps 

 was concerned. He Avas going to contend that muck was not 

 worth hauling, much less the dirty job of digging out of the 

 swamp or some hollow in the woods among the roots. 



George E. Waring said he fully appreciated Mr. RolDinson's 

 remarks in opposition to the use of muck, since, as we all know, 

 he has long been one of its most earnest advocates, and has only 

 noAv got up a seeming opposition, to force some of the muck 

 advocates to stand up to the defence of their favorite fertilizer, 

 which, with some considerable experience he Avas ready to do. 

 There is probably no single subject connected with agriculture 

 which is so worthy of our consideration as that of muck, or, to 

 make it more general, decomposed organic matter. So great is 

 the action of this form of matter in the production of vegetation, 

 that until the researches of Liel)ig, nearly all the vegetable phi- 

 losophers believed it to enter bodily into the plant as pabulum 



