540 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The inventor said it would grind bones with great facility. 

 He thought it would answer to grind fish guano. 



George Pumpelly of Owego, thought the invention one of in- 

 calculable advantage to farmers, as it would enable them to reduce 

 all their grain, and perhajDS hay, to meal before feeding it. 



Solon Robinson thought the invention worthy of all considera- 

 tion as developing an entire new princij^le in the mode of reducing 

 grain to meal. He wished to know the expense of a mill of 

 suitable size for a family — say one horse power. 



Mr. Blanchard said the mill ran so easy that one man would 

 do the work of one horse upon ordinary mills. 



He thought such a mill could be built for |25. Arrangements 

 will be shortly made for their manufacture on a large scale. 



FARMERS' GARDENS. 



The time of the Club having been taken" up with other interest- 

 ing matter, but little was said upon this subject, and it was con- 

 tinued till the next meeting. 



Solon Robinson said it was a great error of farmers to endeavor 

 to raise vegetables in a small enclosure, when all the work must 

 be done by the spade. He advocated planting everything in long 

 rows, where they could be cultivated with a horse hoe. 



Mr. Atwood of Jersey — The inquiry into the causes of the 

 lessened crops of potatoes and of some grains, wheat for ex- 

 ample, among us. of late years, deserves all our investigation. 

 For it is not true in a vast number of farms that tillage and 

 fertilizing are more wanting than of old; on the contrary, much 

 of it is very greatly improved ; Still a falling off". Of old, we had 

 several hundreds of bushels of potatoes per acre ; now seldom 

 half as many. And this truth belongs to several classes of the 

 vegetable kingdom, such as grapes for example, decrease over 

 almost the whole world. It is time for us very seriously to 

 investigate the cause, and seek preventives and curatives. 



Mr. Megs directed attention of gentlemen to Peters' new 

 patent refrigerator, an affair of the most important character to 

 our city, whose inhabitants must keep their Croton water cool, 

 and who would preserve the food, milk, butter, and the remnant 

 of meals for next day, sweet and wholesome, thus saving con- 

 siderable sums of money, and more considerable and valuable 

 appetite for the perfect condition of those remnants, instead of 

 taint, frowzy, musty, very unpleasant savors and. smells. Tliis 

 safe lias externally a jacket of pulverised charcoal, next to this 

 a jacket of ice some three inches thick. At the spot which would 



