270 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



3Iarch 10, 1863. 

 Mr. N. Hawxhurst, of New Jersey, in the chair. 



Lice on Cattle. 



Prof. Mapes. — Can any member of the Club inform me whether they 

 have tried any of the receipts floating round the country to destroy lice ou 

 cattle? Among them I found that oil placed on the coat of the animal was 

 a remedy highly recommended, but I am under the impression that it would 

 be likely to interfere with the healthy endosmdse and exosmdae functions of 

 the skin.' Every pore of the skin is an excretory organ, and if filled with 

 any substance not readily removed, would injure the health of the animal. 

 Another, the application of wood ashes. I am under the impression that 

 the remedy is worse than the disease. 



Dr. Trimble. — I have made insects a study. A number of insects 

 breathe from their sides; the application of any oily substance prevents 

 their breathing, so they die. I remember once, when practicing as a 

 young physician, being called on to prescribe to a child who had been 

 })laying on some fleeces of wool. A tick from the wool had got into the 

 child's ear, and caused great pain. I introduced some sweet oil into the 

 ear, and in a little time the tick came to the surface, and was removed with 

 a, pair of forceps. 



How to Produce Opium. 



A lady in the north part of Vermont writes: 



" I want to enter into the business of raising opium, but do not know 

 how or v;here to get the seed to raise the poppies, and should like to see 

 the manner of its cultivation, etc., discussed by the Farmers' Club." 



Prof. Mapes. — Growing poppies for opium has, as a general thing, proved 

 a failure in this country, either owing to frequent rains, which interfere 

 with the production, or else because the plant does not afford opium 

 enough to make it a paying crop. Some persons, however, have made a 

 good business of saving the juice of lettuce, which is used by druggists as 

 a substitute for opium. It possesses soporific qualities, without the nar- 

 cotic qualities of poppies. The stalks are allowed to run up, but are cut 

 off before seeding, and the juice gathers and dries in a wafer on the top, 

 and is gathered twice a day, making a fresh cut every time. To make it 

 profitable, the work must be done by children, and will then pay better 

 than poppies. 



Cotton in Kansas. 



Mr. Wm. Hosford writes from Oskaloosa as follows, in regard to cotton 

 growing in that State: 



"I obtained a little seed from fugitives from southern Missouri, and by 

 the Hon. S. C. Pomroy, from Washington, and planted it the 10th of May, 

 in drills three and a half feet apart. The yield was 343 pounds in the 

 seed, weighed when well dried. In Tennessee 800 pounds per acre is a 

 crop. My seed was mostly the green variety. Some black seeds produced 

 plants ten inches higher, with longer bolls, but did not ripen as early by 

 three weeks. Some of my planting was on low, moist, rich land, that did 



