Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 495 



have been humbugged by this food-cooking business, and machines 

 for carrying it out, and I think it is about time it was stopped. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble — I have no doubt that many farmers have 

 had the same experience as Mr. Crane, and I hope his statement will 

 save some others' expense. 



Mr. Hauser — Experiments were made in Germany by a committee 

 of scientific men, and they have determined that there is not so much 

 benefit in cooked food for stock as has been supposed ; in fact, that it is 

 no benefit for cattle, but for hogs it is of great value. The intestines 

 of a hog 'differ from those of other farm animals. 



Plaster. 



A correspondent spoke ill of plaster and denounced its general use. 

 The day, he thinks, is not far distant when conclusive evidence will 

 be given that, by its application to land, farmers will be annually out 

 just the amount the article costs. Take a field of say ten acres of 

 corn or clover, and apply plaster to it in alternate strips of say ten 

 feet in width, and the field will not produce one bushel of corn or 100 

 pounds of hay more by the application. Just to the extent that the 

 dressed portion of the field is benefited the undressed portion will be 

 injured by it, showing conclusively that plaster acts on the principle 

 of robbing Peter to pay Paul, which would run them both into the 

 ground ; or, in other words, that one-half of the crop cannot be 

 enhanced by the application unless it is done at the expense of the 

 other half. Now, if this be true of one field, why will not the theory 

 hold good for 100, 1,000, a township, a county ? 



Mr. C. D. Bragdon — I know perfectly well that if I use plaster I 

 grow richer, and my neighbor, who neglects to use plaster, grows 

 poorer. I have had experience, and found the expenditure of five or 

 six dollars per acre, for plaster, money well invested. 



Dr. J. Ware Sylvester — Our farmers in Wayne county are very 

 partial to plaster, and hoard it as they would money. It may be 

 called an absolutely essential part of our farming. It is applied to 

 clover and grass land in spring ; it is also used with manure to fix 

 the ammonia. I am satisfied that by using it frequently with stable 

 manure the value of the dung heap is increased fully one-third. 

 Alone, or mixed with ashes, it is applied to corn in the blade, and 

 always advantageously. 



Experiment in Raising Rye. 

 Mr. P. S. Peers, Connecticut — We raised the past season twenty- 

 eight and eleven-sixteenths bushels of rye on 117 rods of ground, by 



