PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 191 



will not suit our locality; the same of those at the west; some kinds that 

 were thought superior at one place are condemned at others. Some three 

 years since, a committee was appointed to prepare a list of fruit suitable 

 to different localities; a committee was also appointed to examine new 

 seedling fruit, gentlemen well known in the country as practical fruit 

 growers, such as Messrs. Barry, of Rochester; Wilder, of Boston; Reid, of 

 New Jersey; and Downing, of Newburgh. I was pleased with Rogers' 

 new hybrid grapes, and also with a new pear, called Clapp's favorite, a 

 very large seedling. 



Mr. R. G. Pardee. — I have attended several of these conventions, one 

 held in Boston, and one in New York. I was not astonished at the exhi- 

 bition of fruit; it is true they had a great number of specimens, but look- 

 ing at it in a pomological sense, I did not see anything equal to the varieties 

 I have seen at exhibitions in western New York. 



To Have Green Corn in November. 



Plant corn at several times until the 15th of July, before the frost comes; 

 cut it and place it in great shocks, and you can have green corn in Novem- 

 ber as good as it was in August. 



Mr. Carpenter. — There is a variety of corn twelve and fourteen rowed, 

 called the Excelsior; it is one of the finest kinds of sweet corn I have ever 

 grown. 



Rev. Mr. Weaver. — From the description of this corn I must have been 

 deceived in what I purchased for this variety, for mine was very hard and 

 not very sweet. 



Mr. Pardee. — It is necessary that corn should be planted a distance from 

 other varieties; it hybridizes, and the seed planted grows a very superior 

 seedling. 



Mr. Carpenter exhibited several kinds of choice apples. 



Subject for next meeting: "Pruning Grape Vines and Fruit Trees." 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secrelary. 



November 18, 1862. 

 Mr. E. Doughty, of New Jersey, in the chair. 



Birds to which Guano Formations Owe their Existence. 



The Secretary read the following extract made by him: 

 Mr. J. D. Hague, who was engaged more than two years, from 1859 to 

 1861 inclusive, by Mr. William H. Webb, of this city, for the purpose of 

 studying the character and formation of their deposits, furnishes to 

 Silliman's Journal of Science and Arts a very interesting article on the 

 phosphate guano islands of the Pacific ocean, from which is extracted that 

 portion which relates to the birds to which guano formations owe their 

 origin. 



From fifteen to twenty varieties of birds may be distinguished among 

 those frequenting the islands, of which the principal are gannets and 



