480 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Growers' Society of Western New- York for 185G. A pomologi- 

 cal society for the west was organized on the 27lh of February, 

 1855, at Kochester, including Onondaga and all the counties west 

 of it. The terms of membership are one dollar a year and ten 

 dollars for life. At the September meeting in Buffalo, the Chair- 

 man stated that there are 23 counties now included in the organi- 

 zation, four thousand acres occupied as nurseries of fruit trees, 

 with ten thousand trees to each acre. Great numbers of them 

 are lost for want of proper attention. After a fair examination, 

 only eleven, out of the large family of pears, were agreed upon 

 as profitable for cultivation. Some objections were brought 

 against all of those excepting, the Seckel and tlie Bartlett varie- 

 ties. The great convention of Fruit Growers assembled by the 

 American Institute in New- York, in 1848, came to the same con- 

 clusion. The effect of the Lakes, Seneca, Cayuga, Canandaigua, 

 Skaneateles, Onondaga, and others, in intercepting the cold winds 

 from the western prairies, is spoken of as highly beneficial to the 

 fruit. In 15 years only one peach crop had been known to fail 

 in that region. The apples grown thereabouts are better in re- 

 spect to color, excellence of flesh and glossiness of surface, than 

 those of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New-Jersey. 



Benjamin Silliman of Westchester and New-York — I am trying 

 to improve my farm while I may — I have 100 acres — I am trying 

 to get working power in my barn to do much work cheap, and 

 that is by a windmill, as is recently considered advisable. I have 

 witli others lamented the painful struggles of your horses this 

 winter on the smooth and slippery Russ pavement. I have tried 

 to suggest a remedy, and here it is, a horse shoe having six invert- 

 ed steel pyramidal points whose bases are firmly screwed into the 

 horse shoe plate with a wrench. These points when dulled are 

 readily unscrewed and sharpened ones put in their places. As 

 steel tools will cut this Imrd trap of the pavement, these six 

 points will by the horse's tread secure a hold for his foot. 



Solon Eobinson — The same plan has been adopted recently, 

 with the difference only that cast iron chilled corks to screw into 

 the shoe plate do about as well at a much cheaper rate, but either 

 of them are liable to the objection of wearing down rapidly on 

 our Russ pavements. I believe that plan was invented about 

 three months ago. 



Mr. Silliman — My invention is older than that. 



The subject adopted for the next meeting is — The necessary 



