424 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



in Illinois. When first taken, they grow thin and run at the 

 nose and eyes ; they get very weak, and after laying down for 

 twelve or fiftren days, die without a struggle. 



A gentleman said that nothing of the kind had been experi- 

 enced in Jersey. Their lambs, so far as he knew, were quite 

 healthy. 



POTATOES FOR PLANTING. 



Mr. Solon Robinson wished to knew what kind of potatoes 

 were best for early and late use. A member said the Prince Al- 

 bert potato. 



Mr. Gale said he had never succeeded better with any potato 

 than with the Prince Albert. He had never known the Prince 

 Albert to rot though he frequently had others rotting by their 

 side. In reference to the potato rot, he had to say that the 

 reason why so much loss had been suffered was because people 

 did not plant full grown seed, nor did they dig their land suffi- 

 ciently. The potato should not be planted in soil less than fif- 

 teen inches deep, and the disintegration should be perfect. 



A lengthy discussion ensued involving the consideration of 

 ploughs and manures, etc., the Chairman, Dr. Waterbury, Mr. 

 Pardee and others, taking part in it. 



One of the members said, that for an early potato, he had 

 never found anything superior to an Early June. 



LECTURE ON MANURES. 



Professor Mapes proceeded to deliver his second lecture on 

 Manures. 



Twenty-five years ago, James Tallmadge, Thaddeus B. Wake- 

 man, Charles Henry Hall, and four other gentlemen, called at my 

 house; and, during the interview, said to me, "You have made 

 some reputation in the application of chemistry as applied to the 

 useful arts, but you are now advocating ideas that will ruin you, 

 and we dare not place your name on the agricultural board, or 

 renominate you as a vice-president of the Institute. We are 

 coiifident that these theories which you advocate are erroneous, 

 and deem it proper, that as friends, we should make it our duty 

 to speak to you thus candidly." 



I must digress here to explain that the propostions, which 

 these gentlemen considered so preposterous, were, first, that the 

 atmosphere contained ammonia; second, that in the soil, the car- 

 bon, consequent upon organic decay in the soil, and the alumina, 

 were capable of receiving and retaining ammonia for the use of 



