PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 317 



berries plump and full. I also send you one small cluster of Delaware, as 

 an evidence that there is an entire missapprehension of its keeping quali- 

 ties, most fruit growers seeming to think that from its thin skin it would 

 not keep well. They are a good deal shriveled on account of there being 

 but a few clusters in the box in which they were kept. I think gravies 

 will keep longer when not left on the vines until the stem is dry and 

 shriveled." 



These grapes were in fine condition. 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretanj. 



Mr. Martin E. Thompson, of New York, in the chair. 



April 14, 1863. 



Poppy Seed. 



Mr. G. R. Stork, Coventry ville, Chenango county, N. Y., offers the Vermont 

 lady who inquired for seed of the opium poppy, enough to plant an acre 

 free, if she sends a prepaid envelope, provided that she will give the result 

 of her experiment to the public through the Farmers' Club, at the close of 

 the first year's trial. " I also send for distribution among the members of 

 the Club, and any others that may desire to plant them, a package of what 

 is called the Opiimi poppy seed. On suitable soil the growth is rank, and 

 it requires room — rows of three feet apart and eighteen inches in the row, 

 The yield of opium is greater than any other poppy that I have ever seen, 

 and the blossom is the perfection of beauty in the floral department. Sow 

 early, as the frost does not hurt the young plants; and then for fall blos- 

 soming sow again from 1st to 15th July.'' 



Mr. Le Roy Whitford, of Harmony, Chautauqua county, N. Y., thinks the 

 Club do well to caution farmers against many humbugs, such as producing 

 two kinds of potatoes from the halves of two different varieties joined 

 together in the hill; or sweet and sour apples by splitting a bud of each 

 sort and joining them together, and many other similar foolish things. 

 He says: "Every thinking farmer knows that these 'harmless sells,' as 

 they are sometimes called, tend directly to make us suspicious of every 

 innovation, and as therefore a strong brake applied to the wheels of pro- 

 gress, while that vehicle is lumbering and miring in the old ruts of time- 

 honored usage. Good by to the days of wooden plows, reaping hooks, 

 and common fruit, for this is the age of steam plows, horse reapers, and 

 grafted potatoes." 



Manure for Potatoes. 



Mr. Josiah Spalding of Janesville, Wisconsin, formerly of New Hamp- 

 shire, an old farmer, over seventy years of age, sends the following as his 

 experience in potato culture: 



"Any quantity of plaster of Paris (gypsum) you wish to use, saturated 

 with urine thoroughly, after the urine has become putrid or stale ; then 

 add unleached ashes equal to the quantity of plaster; then common sand 



