292 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



great prices, and on the same meadows grows a bush, the leaves of which, 

 in form and taste, are like tea; the blossoms also are like the prints and 

 descriptions which I have seen of the blossoms of tea. There are a few 

 bushes of the same kind in Illinois. 



" I wish, through you, and the American Institute Farmers' Club, to draw 

 attention to the fact that cotton is a first rate crop to plant on fresh broke 

 prairie sod. 



"While I was breaking my garden patch, in Southwestern Missouri, 

 my wife and daughter dropped between the fresh broken sods quite a long 

 row of cotton seed, also sweet and pop corn. The cotton matured so that 

 when the bolls opened the row looked white, but the excessive drought of 

 that season (1860) killed the corn when about a foot high. Old settlers 

 told us that planting between fresh broken sod was the easiest and best 

 way to 'make' cotton. 



" Cotton may be grown profitably as far north as the first blossom which 

 puts out will perfect its boll of cotton, for the reason that, if the season is 

 only long enough for one boll to ripen it will be too short for many more to 

 start, therefore more plants may be put on the ground. 



" In latitude 40 deg., plant six inches apart in the drill, and two feet 

 between the drills; in latitude 37 deg., eighteen inches in the drill, and 

 drills three feet apart. 



"Kansas can raise sod cotton enough the coming season to make 'right 

 smart of shirting. 



" The cotton mills of these United States should immediately send agents 

 furnished with seed, &c., to Kansas to advance the cotton growing interests." 

 Mr. J. Disturnell stated, in regard to the natural productions of Minne- 

 sota, and the Lake Superior region, might be named the wild rice, cran- 

 berries, the red raspberry, and the whortleberry, as flourishing in great 

 profusion; also, different varieties of the pine, hemlock, spruce and fir trees, 

 all of which are evergreens; the sugar maple and birca tree also are found 

 on high grounds in great abundance. 



The forest trees are often of large growth where the soil is good, while 

 sandy portions of the country are less heavily timbered. Often along the 

 lake shore may be found a dense growth of trees, intermixed with fallen 

 timber caused by the high winds which sweep over the whole region at 

 certain periods of the year. This entangled forest it is almost impossible 

 to describe, as trees in all stages of decay cover the ground for miles in 

 extent. 



For a healthy influence this region exceeds all other portions of the 

 United States ; here man attains his full physical strength and endures the 

 cold of winter as well as the moderate heat of summer, being at all times 

 vigorous and capable of great bodily labor — here consumption and fever 

 are almost wholly unknown. 



Mr. J. Henry. — When in Washington, a short time since, I had some 

 conversation with the Department in relation to planting the seeds of for- 

 est trees. There is an immense quantity of land in our country which 

 might be planted with locust, which in the future would realize much 

 more than the value of the land. 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAxMBERS, Secretary. 



