Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 339 



nowhere can he maintain himelf so easily upon limited means until 

 the grove begins to pay ; for, from the orange land, he can realize 

 two, three, and sometimes four crops of vegetables a year. These, 

 with the game, fish and oyster crop, make living cheap. When the 

 orange grove does come on, the reward of his labor is great, and he 

 is, thenceforth, independent. 



Dr. J. Y. C. Smith — The paper is an exhaustive and excellent one 

 on a topic that is exciting considerable interest. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller — The question is, will it pay for us to go down 

 there, and with our improved systems and implements make a busi- 

 ness of orange culture ? I question if I shall ever decide for myself, 

 but I may. There is one point in Mr. Day's discourse which I wish 

 to notice. I do not wonder that orange growers in Florida consider 

 grafted or budded trees usually unhealthy, nor that they have poor 

 success in transplanting trees from the forests. "We would never 

 think of going into the woods and selecting old seedling apple trees 

 for stocks ; and should we do so our apple orchards would fail as 

 quickly as the orange tree transplanted in the manner described by 

 Mr. Day. 



Mr. H. ' T. "Williams — Mr. Parsons, of Flushing, who went to 

 Florida himself, expressed to me the opinion that it was risky, to say 

 the least, for a northern man to undertake the culture of oranges 

 there with expectation of making much money. 



The Chairman — It is within three days that I saw the statement 

 that Mrs. Stowe had made $13,000 this year from her orange grove. 



November 14, 1871. 



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

 Turning Butchers' Offal into Manure. 



Mr. E. Thompson, Louisville, Ky., asks the value of offal as a fer- 

 tilizer. Our pork-packers throw away hundreds of loads every year. 

 How is the best way to use them ? 



Dr. J. Y. C. Smith — Any animal matter introduced into the soil 

 is the best possible fertilizer for plants. It is especially good for 

 trees, and may be buried among the roots. 



Mr. C. D. Bragdon — I have seen, perhaps, twenty experiments in 

 the use of animal refuse as applied directly in quantity to plants and 

 vines, and never witnessed any profitable results. It gives great 

 growth, but it weakens the plant and makes it more liable to winter- 



