AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 503 



tion, nor the cartilages be built up again as last as they naturally 

 waste. KOBT. L. PELL. 



After Mr. Pell's remarks, 



Mr. Meigs exhibited spitzenberg apples, singularly parti-color- 

 ed, harltquin like. One of them has one-half red, and also a 

 tenth part red strips, and all the rest yellow. The seeds to be 

 planted in order to try whether this peculiarity belongs to the 

 seed, or whether it is a hybrid fruit. 



Seeds of the fine cocoa-nut squash, from Mr. Hite, of Morrisa- 

 nia, were distributed. 



Messrs. Palmer & Skilton, of Troy, agents for the Whitaker 

 patent machine for destroying noxious insects, exhibited one of 

 them, so as to show its operation in blowing the destroying smoke 

 or gas, through small hose, which can be fastened to a light rod 

 and placed against worm nests, kc. 



The Chairman called up the regular subject of the day — Pre- 

 paring soil for Spring Work. 



George E. Waring, Jr., was listened to by the large num- 

 ber present with much attention. The first question, con- 

 cerning the preparation of the soil, should be: How can I 

 strengthen it '? It has an arduous task to perform, and unless I 

 fortify it in those parts which are most subject to the plant, it 

 must be weakened. This weakening may not be apparent at 

 once, but in one year, or in ten or more years, it must be very 

 evident. The treasury of a nation may withstand the drain of an 

 expensive war for a long time without receiving the least reve- 

 nue, but it must be a very well-filled treasury, and even then its 

 final impoverishment is inevitable. A soil may raise good crops 

 without manure, but it must be a very good soil to endure this 

 course for a long time, and in any event it must sooner or later 

 suffer from tlie practice. Its loss is as positive as that of the 

 war-drained exchequer. This being the case, we should manure 

 every field on which we expect to raise a crop, no matter whether 

 it is as rich as the Deerfield meadows, or as poor as Bear Ridge. 

 In applying manure we should bear constantly in mind that all 

 undecomposed organic matters produce, in decaying, fertilizing 

 gases whose invariable tendency is to escape into the air, and 

 that, to secure their greatest action, they should be plowed under 

 the soil — when these resultant gases will be absorbed and retain- 

 ed fbr the uses of plants. Mineral manure, on the contrary, such 

 as lime and plaster, have a tendency to settle in the soil and 

 should consequently be applied to its surface after plowing. 



