AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 531 



palladium for the growth of all fruits, grains, and flowers, 

 untouched. His hills barren, or nearly so, his fields impoverished, 

 while a mine of wealth, a supply of enriching materials, for a 

 life-time lie at the very base of those hills, now only fostering 

 the growth of wild grass, briars and bogs. Why will he not 

 remove these deposits to the uplands, enrich his whole farm, 

 forming at the same time a beautiful ai-tificial lake, fill it with 

 fish, cover its banks with the plum, the apricot and nectarine, 

 so planted that the tops of the trees will hang quite over the 

 water, and he would soon have an abundant supply of fruit, 

 which he can gather in a little boat as he sails under the bending 

 boughs. If he is a lover of nature, and has a tincture of romance 

 in his composition, he may glide under the tops of the trees in 

 the stillness of the evening, at spring time, and inhale the 

 delightful aroma that fills the air, when they are covered with 

 bloom. The farmer should not say he cannot get the time to do 

 this, for in many localities the deposits can be removed in the 

 winter when he has more leisure, and he will soon begin to receive 

 a return in the increased production of his farm. When his little 

 lake is completed, his fruit will be a source of revenue and pleas- 

 ure, and the fish a fine addition to the usual farm-supply of 

 the table. I should often attend the meetings of the Club if I 

 could command the time. This season I am very much occupied 

 in putting my vineyards in order, and preparing to plant a new 

 one at Croton Point this spring ; also packing plants for, and 

 giving instructions to others who are commencing the grape 

 culture as a business in preference to entering the far more 

 hazardous though beaten path of mercantile life, whose termi- 

 nation in our large cities has been found disastrous or unsuccess- 

 ful to from eighty to ninety of every one hundred that have 

 entered it. The young and enterprising can find in the culture 

 of fruit, and especially the grape, an open field where competi- 

 tion has not gone so far as to prevent its securing a competency 

 to all those who enter this department of industry. 



Yours very truly, 



R. T. UNDERHILL, M. D. 

 Mr. West, as agent of Chapman W. Warner, of Louisville, 

 Kentucky, exhibited his new patent pump of iron. One man at 

 the brake, throws a stream of water through a half inch nozzle, 

 ninety feet. It is exhibited under the call for one of the subjects 

 of the day, viz : " Irrigating machines." It costs (of this size) 

 from eighteen to twenty-five dollars; and can be had at No. 118 



