274 Transactions of the American Institute. 



list, Irish or Scotch farming, suffer a great discount because of the 

 abundance of moisture in those countries. There is reason to believe 

 that a great step in advance is to be made, such as is now practiced 

 in places on the western half of this continent, will be common here 

 in the eastern half. The time has come when the Rocky Mountains 

 and the Pacific slope is able to give us a lesson in watering our lands 

 by artificial means. 



Mr. H. L. Reade said he lived near the Quinnebaug river, and he 

 hoped he should live to see great wheels lifting up the waters of that 

 stream and distributing it all over the country. He thought the sub- 

 ject an important one, which should be discussed in every farmer's 

 family before they said their prayers. 



Dr. J. V. C. Smith spoke of the irrigation of Egypt ; that it had 

 made that country, naturally sterile, the greatest producing country 

 in the world. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller said, that by this drouth he had lost $1,000 within 

 a month. If he had spent that sum last year lie should have been 

 repaid in one season. 



The motion to appoint a committee was then carried, and the 

 chair appointed Messrs. H. L. Reade, J. B. Lyman and Dr. J. V. C. 

 Smith as such committee, and earnestly besought all who knew any- 

 thing on the general subject of irrigation to communicate with the 

 committee. The committee ask for statements from farmers who 

 have streams through or near their places, stating the fall of such 

 streams and the cost of taking the water out and conducting it to 

 different fields. The mode adopted in the west, on the other slope, 

 is to reckon the number of acres moistened by the irrigating canal, 



and the cost per acre. 



Adjourned. 



June 13, 1871. 



Nathan C. Ely, Esq., in the Chair; Mr. John "W. Chambers, Secretary. 

 Melon Bugs. 

 Mr. B. Osgood, Kingston, East Tennessee, stated that, for the last 

 two or three years, he has been unable to grow any early watermelons 

 in consequence of the ravages of bugs. He sprinkled the hills with 

 ashes, soot, sulphur and other substances he had seen recommended, 

 but without effect ; so in his extremity he came to the Club. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble — This is the old story of the striped bug, 

 peculiar to melons and cucumbers. My plan is to put a box around 



