FAIR OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, ETC. 
301 
PROGRAMME OF THE FAIR OF THE 
AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 
Exhibitors of specimens for premiums, except¬ 
ing cattle and other live stock, agricultural and hor¬ 
ticultural productions, &c., are required to bring 
them to Castle Garden, and obtain a certificate from 
the clerk of the Fair, on Friday or Saturday, the 
29th and 30th days of September, previous to the 
opening of the exhibition. 
Monday, Oct. 2.—Will be'appropriated for the 
arrangement of the contributions. Vegetables, 
fruits, and flowers, for the horticultural room, should 
be brought this day, before 12 o’clock. 
Tuesday , Oct. 3.—The exhibition will open to 
the public at 9 o’clock A. M., and continue until 10 
P. M., through the fair. The opening address will 
be delivered this evening, at 7£ o’clock, in the gar¬ 
den. 
Wednesday , Oct. 4.—The steam engine, -with 
moving machinery, will be in operation, and con¬ 
tinue during the exhibition. 
Thursday, Oct. 5.—Plowing and spading 
matches, at White Plains, West Chester county, N. 
Y., in conjunction with the Society of Agriculture 
and Horticulture of West Chester County. 
Saturday , Oct. 7. —Fireworks this evening at 9 
^ clock. 
Monday , Oct. 9.—Cattle and other live stock to 
be exhibited on Wednesday, must be entered on the 
books this day, and pedigrees delivered to the clerk 
at the committee room, at the Washington Drove- 
Yard Hotel, in 44th street, between 4th and 5th 
Avenues. 
If previously sent to T. B. Wakeman, the Cor¬ 
responding Secretary of the Institute, they will be 
attended to. 
Show of choice roses and dahlias, this day at 12 
o’clock, at Castle Garden, for special premiums. 
Tuesday , Oct. 10.—The Convention of Fruit 
Growers will meet this morning, at 11 o clock, A. 
M., at Judson’s Hotel, 61 Broadway. 
Wednesday , Oct. 11.—The Cattle Show opens at 
9 o’clock, A. M., at the spacious premises known 
as the Washington Drove Yard, in 44th street, be¬ 
tween 4th and 5th Avenues, when all the animals 
must be on the ground. 
Thursday , Oct. 12.—Second and last day of the 
cattle show. Anniversary address at the Broad- 
w 7 ay Tabernacle at 7k o’clock, P. M. Music by an 
accomplished choir, under the direction of Mr. 
George Andrews. 
Saturday , Oct. 14.—Pyrotechnic exhibition, in 
competition for premium, at 9 o’clock, P. M. Each 
exhibitor will be required to fire three pieces. En¬ 
tries to be made on the books before 12 o’clock. 
COMMON SALT POISONOUS TO EX.ANTS. 
Mr. W. R. Randall recently read a paper on 
this subject at a meeting of the British Association 
at Swansea, as a practical caution in the cultivation 
of plants. Three or four plants having been shown 
the author, nearly or quite dead, and having searched 
in vain for any strong poison in the soil, and in the 
plants themselves, he inquired more minutely into 
the circumstances of the case, and found that these 
were only specimens of many hundreds of plants, 
both in the open air, and in the green houses (but 
all in pots), which all exhibited, in a greater or less 
degree, the same characteristics. The roots were 
completely rotten; the stems even, in young 
plants, assumed the appearance of old wood; the 
leaves became brown, first at the point, then around 
the edge, and afterwards all over, while the whole 
plant drooped and died. They.included different 
varieties of the fir, cedar, geranium, fuchsia, rose, 
jasmin, and heath. 
Finding that the whole were daily watered from 
one particular source, the conclusion was at once 
suggested, that the cause of the evil must reside in 
the water thus used, which was then examined, and 
each 20 fluid ounces yielded the following constitu¬ 
ents :—Corbonate of lime, 0.6, sulphate of lime, 
0.462, chloride of calcium, 0.2, chloride of magne¬ 
sium, 1.252, chloride of sodium, 6.906. 
The mould round the plants, and an infusion of 
the dead stems and leaves, also afforded abundant 
evidence of the presence of much chloride of sodi¬ 
um ; and it was also discovered that the well had 
an accidental communication with the sea, and had 
been used in this state for some weeks, probably 
two or three months. Further experiments were 
made, and showed that water containing about 7 
grains of salt, in each pint, is, in its continued use, 
an effectual poison for plants and the weaker forms 
of vegetation ; and that when the soil is continually 
watered with a weak solution of salt, it gradually 
accumulates in it, until it becomes sufficiently con¬ 
taminated to be unfit to support vegetable life. 
In either case, an interesting subject of inquiry 
is suggested—What is the weakest solution of salt 
which can produce in any measure this poisonous 
effect % Or, in other words, at what degree of dilu¬ 
tion does the danger cease ? For salt is often a 
natural constituent of spring water, quite indepen¬ 
dent of any infiltration from the sea, as in this in¬ 
stance. Thus, the water of the Artesian well, Tra¬ 
falgar Square, London, contains in each gallon about 
20 grains ; that at Coombe and Delafield’s brewery, 
12.7; that at Wolverton railway station, 6 ; one 
lately sunk at Southampton for supplying a manu¬ 
factory, 40. Might it not then be justly asked, 
whether the subject of the suitableness of water in 
general for the various purposes to which it is ap¬ 
plied, is not worthy of a greater share of scientific 
attention than it has hitherto commanded % 
Farmers, Read the Agricultural Papers.— 
Not the older ones—they have no need of this su¬ 
perfluity of the nineteenth century: but the 
younger ones can thus learn something, which 
their seniors are too wise to do. Read the best 
agricultural papers and journals ; one, two, or three, 
if you can get them. Sift the chaff from the 
wheat, the bran from the flour, and make good di¬ 
gestible bread of the last. The expense of tak'u.g 
these is nothing, comparatively. Look at your bills 
for extra horse trappings, cigars, tobacco, juleps, 
and nonsense of any kind, which you have both 
cash and leisure for, and you will find that you can 
take half a dozen of the best agricultural papers in 
the Union, with less than half the money you an¬ 
nually throw away in what is worse than useless. 
It is neccessary to avoid returning too soon to the 
cultivation of the same plant, or to analogous kinds 
of vegetation, in the same soil.— Chaptal. 
