156 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



into the churn it should be at a temperature of 62 deg-., and if kept at that, 

 yellow butter will be got in thirty minutes by churning moderately, if your 

 cows have had a little salt every day. 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary. 



August 26, 1862. 

 Rev. Joshua Weaver, of Fordham, in the chair. 



The Plum Crop. 



Mr. Robinson asked Dr. Trimble the prospects of the plum crop in New 

 Jersey. 



Dr. Trimble. — The plum crop in New Jersey this year is very good. The 

 plum tree has a number of enemies. If a plum is rotten it will affect a 

 number of its neighbors. I have a large bottle of curculio hatched this 

 year from the apple. Many persons dispute that the curculio affect the 

 apple. To test the questioii, I placed a quantity of earth in a barrel on 

 which I placed a number of small apples; after the maggot was hatched it 

 went into the ground; I then placed a musquito net over the barrel, and 

 when the curculio arose from the earth they were caught by the net. I 

 think if you allow the hogs to run in the orchards they will eat up every 

 decayed apple, and so prevent the insects from hatching for another year! 

 This year the apple moth is doing great injury to our fruit. From obser- 

 vation, I think the nectarine is the first choice of the curculio; next the 

 plum. Some persons think they save their fruit by using washes of whale 

 oil, soap, &c. I have no faith in it. The reason we have a crop of plums 

 this year is, last season the weather was very dry at the time the maggot 

 was in the ground, and so it dried up; and we have no curculio this year 

 to speak about, and necessarily we have a crop of plums. 



Mr. Robinson. — I found another employment for hogs, in a convesation 

 with some Shakers from New Lebanon. They told me for several years 

 past their crop of apples have failed. The last season they purchased some 

 bogs and turned them into the orchard. The hogs rooted among the trees 

 and became regular workers. Sometimes they throw a little corn round the 

 trees — the hogs are sure to find every grain. The Shakers do not eat pork. 

 I found the family I staid with ate very little meat. 



Dr. Trimble recommended the use of chloride of lime for improving the 

 flavor of butter that has become rancid. The butter is washed in several 

 waters in which a small quantity of the lime has been dissolved. 



The Grapes of the World. 



Mr. Wm. R. Prince, Flushing, L. I., said: 



It is a most astoun-ding fact, on which the human mind may deliberately 

 ponder, that God and Nature, when generating the Vegetable productions 

 of our Globe, have ushered into existence Eleven edible species of the 

 Grape in North America; none in Soutli America but one edible species 

 throughout the entire Eastern Hemisphere, and that one located in Asia; 



