Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 425 



remarks have again raised my hopes, and I should like to know 

 whether they will answer to run a cotton gin. 



Mr. D. B. Bruen — This man is a large planter, and has raised 2,000 

 bags of cotton in a season. lie had better get a steam engine. A 

 six horse-power engine will cost $500, and can be run cheaper than 

 the use of horses. Windmills are failures, because they do not furnish 

 a steady power. 



The Chairman — I have often thought the great power of the wind 

 could be made useful for heavier work than cutting feed, sawing 

 wood. etc. For one horse-power I know they are successful, and why 

 should they not be for six horse-power ? I like to see them ; they are 

 a great addition to the landscape, and if I live I intend to put up one 

 at my country-house. 



Mr. S. E. Todd — Windmills are now made by companies in several 

 parts of the country, that have wings which will adjust themselves, 

 take in sails if the wind is too strong, put their " eye in the wind," 

 and on Long Island they are used for grinding flour. In central !New 

 York there is a large carriage factory where a steam engine was lately 

 changed for a windmill, which runs the saw and other machinery much 

 cheaper than by steam, as it saves fuel and the hire of an engineer, 

 to say nothing of avoiding the risk of loss by fire or explosion. 



Black Knots ox Plum Trees. 



Mr. Mark W. Stevens, Sloansville, N. Y., writes: "My theory of 

 the cause of this disease is that the disease is caused by an excess of 

 sap in the branches at a time when the growth of wood and leaves do 

 not absorb it, and when the leaves do not protect the branches from 

 the sun. The ground at that season is usually saturated with water, 

 and the heat often extreme ; they, acting together, produce a flow of 

 sap which cannot be absorbed by the young leaves, and is therefore 

 detained in the young wood, where fermentation takes place, caused 

 by the sun's heat, and the result is the disease described. 



" The reasons for this opinion are these : The disease seldom occurs 

 in the kinds of plums which have an early and luxuriant growth of 

 leaves, such as the Princess Imperial, Gage, Jefferson, Orange-plume 

 and Yellow Gage, but does appear on others growing alongside 

 the above, and growing under precisely the same circumstances, such 

 as Smiths, Orleans, Damson and Red Gage, which have smaller and 

 fewer leaves than the first mentioned. It seldom occurs upon trees 

 root-grafted into the wild plum stock, which develops a small root 

 compared with the top of the tree. It seldom occurs in trees that 



