goo TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



which cotton is made of flax by discharging it by explosion of 

 powder. 



Mr. Gale.— The cost of picking cotton may be estimated upon 

 the basis of twenty pounds a day to the hand. 



The Chairman. — The great diSiculty about cotton culture is 

 the waste of the land. It is not because it cannot be grown further 

 north than it now is — it is the cost of production. But cotton 

 can be grown in Africa, and efforts are now making to introduce 

 its cultivation there pretty largely. In Algeria experiments are 

 making with a new silk worm, which bids fair to furnish a sub- 

 stitute for cotton. 



R. G. Pardee.— Cotton does not exhaust the land faster than 

 flax. Its cultivation has been given up in some places on account 

 of its exhausting the soil. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — I do not consider flax any more exhaust- 

 ing than many other crops. Wheat exhausts so that it cannot 

 well be continued year after year. 



CLOVER BLOSSOMS AND HUMBLEBEES. 



The Chairman stated that clover blossoms are fertilized almost 

 entirely by the bumblebee, and the reason why the first crop 

 does not bear seed is because these insects are not sufficiently 

 plenty at that time (o fertilize the blossoms. 



Mr. Carpenter stated that the Italian honey bees can feed 

 from the red clover blossoms. 



Mr. Quin. — I have a difi'erent opinion from some about land 

 being only impoverished by plants maturing seeds. Clover never 

 produces over six bushels per acre of seed, and that of course 

 does not exhaust the soil ; but that is not all. Clover is an air 

 plant, and has a long tap root, wdiich, in its decay furnishes 

 fertility, and thus keeps the land in good condition, wdiich would 

 be exhausted by a grain crop, but not because it ripens the seed, 

 but because the plant does not furnish such fertilizing materials 

 as clover does. 



Mr. Gale. — I don't believe in exhausting soil by any crop, if it 

 is properly pulverized. The more we prepare the soil, so that 

 roots can penetrate, the more it will produce, and the longer it 

 will last. Adjourned. 



JOHN BRUCE, Secretary, 



