NEW YORK FARMERS 5 CLUB. 
359 
astonishing what numbers turn out for the scanty 
pittance they thus earn, painfully toiling to gather 
up every head and straw which the binders have 
left behind them. In coming up to London from 
Gambridge, we counted 171 gleaners in a single 
field not exceeding 12 acres, and upon expressing 
our surprise at this occurrence to a fellow-passen¬ 
ger in the coach, he assured us he had repeatedly 
seen from 400 to 500 persons in an area perhaps 
not more than twice the size of the one just pass¬ 
ed ; and so great was the want of employment in 
the country, that it was found necessary to pass a 
law, confining the benefit of gleaning entirely to 
the people of the parish where the field was situ¬ 
ated. This argues a sad state of things for the 
laborers of the country; for we doubt whether the 
average gains per day, in gleaning, were over 15 
to 20 cents, and it must be recollected that they 
had their own food and raiment to provide for. 
Still the people, generally, looked healthy, and it 
was gratifying to see them return from the fields 
at night, bearing their gleanings in twisted bands 
arranged in large bundles on their heads and 
shoulders. Among these might occasionally be 
seen fine blooming girls, reminding one of the tale 
so beautifully told in Thompson’s Autumn. 
« The lovely young Lavinia once had friends, 
And fortune smiled, deceitful, on her birth.” 
NEW YORK FARMERS’ CLUB. 
The semi-monthly meeting of the Club took 
place on Tuesday the 20th November at 12 o’clock, 
M., at the reading-room of the repository of the 
American Institute in the Park; William J. Town¬ 
send, Esq., in the chair. 
Mr. Wakeman presented a paper by Mr. Bos¬ 
well of Philadelphia, on the subject of grafting, 
and proposing a plan for extending the cultivation 
of choice fruits as follows:— 
1. Make a collection of choice scions of apple, 
pear, &c., during the months of February and 
March, and keep them at the Repository of the 
American Institute. 2. When the proper season 
arrives, employ some well-known practical nur¬ 
seryman to teach in a particular manner the oper¬ 
ation of engrafting. 3. By the above means, young 
men can go into the country with a knowledge of 
the business, taking with them the choicest varie¬ 
ties of fruits in the Union. 
Mr. Boswell, who was present, stated that he 
had established a system of exchanges of fruit 
scions , and will furnish the Institute with those of 
the choicest kind—from Boston to Cincinnati. 
During July and August, choice varieties of 
plum, cherry, peach, apricot, and nectarine, can 
be collected, and some nurseryman employed to 
teach budding and inoculation. 
Mr. Meigs said that Mr. Pell, of Ulster county, 
made a statement at the Repository, relative to his 
experimental farming, from which it appeared 
that he had found benefit from the use of oyster- 
shell lime—using 300 bushels per acre. That in 
addition he had employed 52 bushels of charcoal 
per acre. That on this charcoal dressing he ob¬ 
tained last summer at the rate of seventy-eight 
bushels and twenty-four quarts of wheat per acre. 
That he had cut wheat two or three weeks sooner 
than his neighbors; when the root of the straw 
began to turn brown, and when by the pressure 
of the finger and thumb on the grain, its milk 
would fiy out. That this wheat weighed 64 pounds 
per bushel. That he sold it for seed at one dollar 
per bushel, when ordinary wheat was 87 cents. 
That he cut clover and housed it on the same day 
—sprinkling about a bushel of salt over every load. 
That this clover retained its green color, and was 
preferred by cattle to that saved in the old way. 
That he had 20,000 apple-trees in full bearing. 
That in dry weather he had applied lime freely at 
the roots—found that this preserved the verdure 
and growth, when the neigborhood was much in¬ 
jured by drought. That he dipped a sponge in 
ammonia, and applied it to the worm-nests on his 
trees, which banished them completely. That he 
has sent to market four thousand barrels of apples, 
many of which go to London, and there sell for 
$9 per barrel. That he employed a man from 
Vermont to engraft 10,000 apple-trees for $150. 
That this man brought a company of men of whom 
two sawed off the proper limbs, two more made 
the incisions (two of them) in the bark, two more 
inserted the grafts, two more applied a compost 
of wax, tallow, and rosin. That out of the 20,000 
grafts few failed. 
Col. Edward Clark stated that charcoal suffered 
no diminution in its use for vegetation. 
Dr. Milhau stated that it takes and retains the 
ammonia. 
The chairman remarked that 52 bushels of char¬ 
coal would nearly sprinkle an acre. 
John D. Ward stated that charcoal-pits give fer¬ 
tility for 50 years. That such spots are called 
coal-bottoms , and are remarkable for vigorous vege¬ 
tation. 
Mr. Townsend said that the effect was due to 
the ashes ! He had often noticed it—that a spot 
where pure charcoal was, received no fertilization. 
It was the alkali merely that did it. 
Mr. Carter said that good fruit ought to be in¬ 
troduced among all farmers; that some time ago, 
some person who was about migrating to the new 
lands bought 400 trees at Newark—natural fruit- 
trees—took them to New York in September, set 
them in a garden, where they began to vegetate; 
took them up for the winter, and put them in a 
cellar in earth—took them by a stove in winter, 
and grafted them—sent them to the new lands in 
the spring. Mr. Carter saw them this summer ; 
they were the finest pippins in that country. 
Mr. Meigs made some remarks on carbon—that 
it is charcoal; all vegetables burned give it; it is 
the essential principle of vegetable life; that the 
experiments of Sir Isaac Newton on the refraction 
of light caused him to place diamond, amber, oil, 
