PROCEEDINGS OF THE FA'RMEBs' CLUB. 145 



plant in tlie whole familj^ I measured yesterday the foot-stalks 

 of a plant of this variety, set out last October, over fifteen inches 

 long. One of the plants has fifty-four berries growing, none yet 

 ripe. The plants are remarkably strong-rooted, and the foliage 

 is very rank. 



Prof, Mapes. — I grow strawberries for market, and think the 

 Wilson the most profitable of all the varieties. I let them make 

 runners, and I use no animal manure, 



A DRAINING MACHINE. 



Prof Mapes exhibited a model of a machine for laying drain 

 tile by power, making the hole with a sort mole-plow, and filling 

 it with round tile, wherever the soil is free of stones. 



Adjourned, 



HENEY MEIGS, Secretary. 



June 18, 1860. 



Present one hundred members. 



Doctor Trimble, of New Jersey, in the chair. 



Judge Meigs read the following communication from Mr. 

 McElrath the Corresponding Secretary of the Institute, with a 

 request, on the part of President Hall, to whom the letter was 

 addressed, that the Club take action on so much of it as related 

 to grains and seeds : 



American Institute, ) 

 New York, June 16, 1860. \ 

 To William Hall, Esq., President : 



Dear Sir — The foresight and liberal policy of our government, 

 together with prudent negotiations and skillful diplomacy, have 

 produced a wonderful change in the foreign intercourse and com- 

 mercial policy of a hitherto inaccessible and strongly exclusive 

 nation. The barriers, with which the people of Japan have for 

 so many centuries entrenched themselves, are at last broken 

 down. This innovation upon the sleeping population of that 

 beautiful, far off land, communicating to it the world's knowledge. 

 and imparting vital action to its living masses, is among the 

 grandest achievements of advancing civilization that has charac- 

 terized the present century. The imposing Embassy from that 

 distant eastern empire, now in our country, is the first bold step 

 taken by the Japanese in the direction of social and political 



[Am. Inst.] J 



