Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 285 



the weight, in consequence of the immaturity of the crop ; but the 

 loss would be none at the end, by the change in the nature of the 

 plant from a juicy, saccharine combination into something that acts 

 simply as a stiff, horny holder for the vessels containing the matured 

 seed. 



Poultry Fountain". 

 Mr. B. Yan Gaasbeck, 12 First street, New York, exhibited a flow- 

 ing spring poultry fountain, which was' highly approved. 



Adjourned. 



June 27, 1871. 



Nathan C. Ely, in the chair ; Mr. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 

 Progress in Dairy Farming. 

 J. Addison Smith,Collins Center, Erie county, Pa. — "We live twenty- 

 five miles south of Buffalo, in the midst of a grazing district. This 

 implies, of course, soiling, composting, underdraining, and subsoiling, 

 and the two first call for a new barn with a new name ; a structure 

 simple, cheap, convenient and comfortable, handy not only for storing 

 feed, but also for stabling and composting, and by its merits entitled 

 to have written across its front gable, in letters of gold, compost fac- 

 tory, where each cow, well mulched with dry muck or other dry 

 earth, can turn out annually twenty loads of choice home-made fer- 

 tilizer, ninety -five per cent of which can be home produced. Now, 

 with this amount of rich compost applied annually to each under- 

 drained and well-tilled acre, how long will it take to realize our motto, 

 and at the same time make it pay as we go along ? But who has suf- 

 ficient faith in soiling, composting, underdraining, and fertilizing, 

 and at the same time sufficient skill to construct a stable so as to secure 

 evenness of temperature, summer and winter, good light, good ventila- 

 tion, with convenience for drying and storing muck or other absorb- 

 ents and deodorizers, together with nice facilities for daily composting, 

 and storing up compost, until the best time to apply the same to the 

 hungry soil without waste and loss, and embracing, too, convenient 

 storage for variety of feed, combined with economy of space, and at 

 the same time each kind equally accessible, and all without violating 

 any law of economy, either of time, space, labor, convenience or cost ? 

 Thirty-five years' experience as a barn-carpenter, and the same num- 

 ber of years of observation on dairy farming, have given me intense 



