172 
NEW YORK FARMERS’ CLUB. 
NEW YORK FARMERS’ CLUB. 
This branch of the American Institute continues 
to hold its meetings, as usual, on the first and third 
Tuesdays of each month, free of charge. At the 
last three sessions various topics were discussed, 
among which were the feeding and management of 
stock, and the nature and application of Indian corn 
and other grains. 
Soiling, Sfc. —Dr. H. A. Field stated that he had 
found during summer, that it was a bad practice to 
change the food of cattle often. From feeding on 
clover, or oats cut green, and putting them suddenly 
upon green corn-stalks, he found that his cows be¬ 
came thin. His method of soiling them was as 
follows: To select a piece of land neither wet nor 
very dry, and make it as rich as possible by manur¬ 
ing, at the same time studying economy. In Sep¬ 
tember, sow rye—double seed it—it will come early 
in spring; then sow oats, clover, and the common 
field pea, which will be of a heavy growth. After 
the rye is off, sow Indian corn broad-cast; cut the 
stalks while they are green and tender, before it 
has tasseled. You can have two, and even three or 
more, such crops of corn in a season, by beginning 
early and continue to sow for several weeks in suc¬ 
cession. Thus, you can sow rye in September, 
oats, peas, and clover, early in spring, and corn in 
early summer. If this green food should cause 
diarrhoea, give the cows for a while dry feed. In 
this way you can keep up your green crops from 
snow to snow ! He said that four of his cows 
which were stabled in winter, and soiled in summer, 
after this plan, had yielded about $300 worth of 
milk the year past, sold to certain hotels in summer, 
for two and a half cents a quart, and for four cents 
a quart in winter. Two cows which gave only 
five quarts daily each, produced eleven quarts each 
after being stabled and well fed. 
Remedy for the Heaves .— Mr. Hancock presented 
the following recipe for thick-windedness or heaves 
in horses:— 
Take 180 grains of tartar emetic, and divide it 
into three equal doses of 60 grains each. Mix one 
of them in wet bran, and give it to the horse. Re¬ 
peat the dose once in two days, and his disease 
will be greatly alleviated, if not perfectly cured. 
Arracacha. —Mr. Meigs read an interesting paper 
on the arracacha, an umbelliferous plant, found 
wild in the elevated regions of equatorial America, 
where it is also cultivated for the sake of its root. 
In the Andes of Popayan, Los Pastes, and New 
Granada, it is as extensively grown there as the 
potato, and is far more productive than that plant, 
yielding, according to some statements, sixteen tons 
of roots to an acre, while the potato does not ave¬ 
rage more than nine or ten tons. It is said, how¬ 
ever, to be somewhat less nutritious, as it contains 
a larger proportion of water. The root of the 
arracacha resembles that of a gigantic parsnip, with 
numerous fangs, and in flavor is thought to be 
something between that of the parsnip and roasted 
chestnuts. Each root is said to weigh from four to 
six pounds, when grown on good land, and serves 
as an excellent article of food. But the question 
naturally arises, will it grow in the open air in any 
part of the United States?—a question that can 
only be answered by actual experiment. The tem¬ 
perature of the Andes where the finest fields of this 
plant occur, varies from 64° to 82°F., where there 
is no frost, no cold weather, nor dry summer heats, 
where it must have six months of favorable wea¬ 
ther to perfect its growth. From various experi¬ 
ments made in different parts of Europe, it will not 
bear frost, and very dry weather is equally fatal to 
it; and besides, it is a difficult crop to preserve 
through the winter, owing to its great proneness to 
decay. Consequently it would be ill adapted to the 
northern, and in most seasons, to the middle sections 
of the Union. Should this plant ever succeed in 
the United States, as a field crop, the mountainous 
parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, and of Texas, will 
probably be the theatre of operations. 
Composition of Corn, §c. —Mr. Browne presented 
specimens of several varieties of Indian corn, ac¬ 
companied by a diagram showing the chemical 
proportions of the various kinds of corn, beans, 
peas, &c., from original experiments made by Dr. 
C. T. Jackson, of Boston. He also repeated seve¬ 
ral of the experiments, as illustrated by the dia¬ 
gram, and showed the proportions of starch, dex¬ 
trine, and phosphates, contained in the corn, with 
the view of proving that the ingredients of which 
the different varieties are composed, are not uni¬ 
form, and consequently the analysis of one kind 
alone cannot be of much practical advantage when 
applied to the whole. In splitting open, longitudi¬ 
nally, some kernels of Tuscarora corn, and drop¬ 
ping upon them a small quantity of the tincture of 
iodine, nearly all of their bulk -was instantaneously 
changed from a pure white to an intense blue, indi¬ 
cating the presence of starch, with here and there 
a deep port wine colored speck, which defined the 
parts composed of dextrine. In treating some rice 
corn and pop corn in the same manner, only 
slight traces of starch were manifested, showing, 
conclusively, that the proportions of the ingredi¬ 
ents of which the two varieties are composed, are 
widely different. Again, in soaking some split 
kernels of sweet corn in a solution of sulphate of 
copper (blue vitriol), the chits or parts contain¬ 
ing the germs, were changed to a bright green, 
beautifully defining the limits of the phosphates of 
lime and magnesia contained in the corn, and indi¬ 
cating more than double the quantity than the Tus¬ 
carora variety contained wffien treated in the 
same way. 
Corn Oil .— The horny or flinty portions of corn, 
Mr. B. remarked, when viewed in their sections 
under a good microscope, will be found to consist 
of a great number of six-sided cells filled with a 
fixed oil, which has been successfully employed for 
the purposes of illumination. He said that he had 
been informed from a credible source, that there is a 
distillery in the vicinity of Lake Ontario, wffiere this 
oil is extracted, at the rate of sixteen gallons from 
one hundred bushels of corn, leaving the remaining 
portion of the corn more valuable and in better 
condition for distillation, than before the oil is 
extracted. 
Popping Corn. —On this oil, added Mr. B., de¬ 
pends the popping qualities of corn. For when the 
kernels are heated to a temperature sufficiently 
high to decompose the oil, a sudden explosion 
takes place, and every cell is ruptured by the ex- 
