PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 333 



culture. What is your opinion or that of your Club about it? The pub- 

 lic are interested in this question." 



Dr. Trimble. — This is a very sensible letter, and pertinent inquiry, but I 

 don't know about the Club recommending any particular work. I have 

 heard a good deal about Dr. Grant's new paper called Landmarks, but 

 have not read it enough to give an opinion, though I think it is undoubt- 

 edly the best adapted to the wants of fruit-growers of any periodical that 

 is published. 



Mr. Prince said that Dr. Grant was very capable of giving instruction 

 about grape culture, and that his paper, called Landmarkn, was wholly 

 devoted to that subject, and that there was no work upon general fruit cul- 

 ture. He recf)nimended Downing, and Hovey's magazine, for general cul- 

 tivation, and Grant for grapes. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The gentleman certainly has not read late numbers 

 of Landmarks, where " How to plant trees " is fully discussed and illus- 

 trated by engravings. I have a letter from Charles Downing, who, 

 incidentally speaking of Dr. Grant's new enterprise to endeavor to enlighten 

 the public, says: 



" I would add that I think the Landmarks a valuable publication, and 

 when the public is educated up to its standard, it will be highly prized. It 

 is, however, ahead of the people, and not sufficiently condensed for most 

 readers." 



Mr. Robinson recommended that a committee be appointed to consider 

 and report these inquiries about works upon fruit culture, but the 

 Club thought it would be a thankless, if not a hopeless undertaking; that, 

 if Dr. Grant is publishing the best American work upon fruit culture, the 

 people will soon find it out, and appreciate the undertaking. 



Mr. Carpenter said that he approved of giving the public all the infor- 

 mation possible, yet it was a fact that about as many succeed who never 

 read as there are among those who have access to all the books. 



Prof. Mapes. — Books are for those already "skilled in the art." To 

 understand what is written upon fruit culture, one must already be a good 

 culturist. 



Dr. Trimble — I think reading, talking or teaching of very little impor- 

 tance, if ahead of the people. Here I have been for twenty years studying 

 the habits of the curculio, until I know all about that insect, and I have 

 been trying to teach people how to avoid its ravages, so as to grow plums, 

 but I fear that my teaching has made but little impression. 



Aid. Ely said that the Doctor was mistaken, for he had lately overheard 

 a man in the cars telling how he read in the report of these meetings what 

 a doctor from New Jersey said about killing curculio by spreading a sheet 

 under the tree and jarring it, and then killing the insects on the sheet; and 

 that he followed the advice, and got for the little trouble as fine a crop of 

 clums as he ever saw, while his neighbors got none. 



Pruning Grape Vines. 



Mr. Wm. R. Prince. — I should like to make a few remarks on the subject 

 of pruning grape vines — the method adopted by ignorant men of pruning 

 the vines to eight feet. No American vine should be allowed a less space 



