THE CULTIVATOR. 
51 
On motion of Gen. Viele, of Troy, it was 
Resolved , That a Committee be appointed to prepare 
a memorial to the Legislature at its present session, for 
the renewal of the act to promote Agriculture, passed in 
1841. 
The Committee to whom was referred the considera¬ 
tion of claims for premiums on Essays and Text-book, 
have not yet reported on that subject, but are expected 
to submit their report at the next meeting of the Execu¬ 
tive Committee, which will be on the 13th of February 
next. - 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
The new board of officers met at the Society's room, 
Jan. 16, the President in the chair. Present, Messrs. 
Prentice, Walsh, Kirby, Randall, McIntyre, Faxon, Vail, 
Lee, Enos, and Tucker. 
On motion of Major Kirby, 
Resolved, That the next annual Cattle Show and Fair 
be held at Utica, on the 16th, 17th, and 18th days of Sep¬ 
tember next. 
On motion of Mr. Tucker, e 
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to make ar¬ 
rangements for a series of weekly agricultural meetings, 
to be held in the Assembly Chamber, and also to take 
such measures as may be deemed necessary in relation 
to the room assigned to the Society by the State authori¬ 
ties. The committee appointed, consists of Messrs. 
Johnson, Beekman, ami Tucker. 
After considerable progress in making out the Premi¬ 
um List, it was referred to a committee, consisting of the 
President, Messrs. Lee, Prentice, McIntyre, Hillhouse, 
and Tucker, to report at the next meeting of the board. 
The regular meetings of the Executive Committee 
will be held at the Society's Room in the old State Hall, 
on the second Thursday of each month. 
SOCIAL AGRICULTURAL MEETINGS. 
The social meetings of farmers, Members of the Leg¬ 
islature, and others interested in Agriculture, which took 
place in this city last winter, and in which so much in¬ 
terest was manifested, have been resumed. A meeting 
was held at the Old State Hall, on Thursday evening, Jan. 
I6th, at which the President elect of the State Agricultu¬ 
ral Society, B. P. Johnson, presided, and an organiza¬ 
tion was effected for the future. This organization is as 
follows: Hon. J. P. Beekman, (ex-president of the 
State Ag. Society,) President— Robert Denniston, E. 
P, Prentice, and Edward S. Salisbury, Vice-Presi¬ 
dents— D. Lee, Sanford Howard, and E. Mack, com¬ 
mittee to prepare subjects for discussion. The Editors 
of the Cultivator were appointed to act as Secretaries. 
At this meeting Dr. Lee made some interesting re¬ 
marks on the necessity of, and the advantages which 
would be derived from, a system of thorough scientific 
and practical education, applicable to the profession of 
agriculture. 
At the close of Dr. Lee’s remarks, a desultory discuss¬ 
ion was carried on for the remainder of the evening, in 
which Judge Leland of Steuben county, Major Kirby 
of Brownville, Messrs. McVane of the Assembly, Stuart 
of Rochester, Howard of Albany, Comstock of Rome, 
and the President, took part. Many useful facts were 
elicited, and the meeting was in all respects highly sat¬ 
isfactory to those present. We took some notes of the 
remarks made, but are obliged for the present, to post¬ 
pone their publication. 
These meetings will be continued every Thursday eve¬ 
ning, during the session of the Legislature, and will in 
future be held in the Assembly room of the Capitol. 
PREMIUM SHEEP BARN. 
We are requested by Mr. L. A. Morrell to offer a pre¬ 
mium of ten dollars, for the best plan of a sheep barn , 
adapted to feeding within doors, with drawings of the 
racks, yards attached, &c., with plans of deposit for roots, 
grain, &c., the quantity of hay it will hold, and a parti¬ 
cular explanation of the whole, and the number of sheep 
it will accommodate; to be forwarded to him, addressed 
to Lake Ridge, Tompkins Co., N. Y. The award will be 
made by the President of the N. Y. State Ag. Society, 
and two members of the Executive Committee. 
We are further requested to say that his object in this 
is, to insert the same in the work he is now preparing for 
publication on Sheep Husbandry, which he hopes to have 
in readiness for the printer by about the first of May en¬ 
suing. 
FIRE BLIGHT IN PEAR TREES. 
An extended and elaborate paper on this subject, read 
before the Indiana Horticultural Society, by the author, 
Henry W. Beecher, appears in a late number of Ho- 
vey’s Magazine. After many accurate observations, the 
writer comes to the conclusion, that whatever may be 
the cause of fire-blight in New-England, which he does 
not deny may be caused by an insect, the great blight 
the past season in the Western States was produced by 
the weather and season. The high source whence this 
paper originates, entitles it to great respect, and from 
the importance of the subject, a particular notice is de¬ 
manded. 
According to the theory laid down, the blight is pro¬ 
duced by a warm, moist autumn, inducing late and suc¬ 
culent growth, followed by early and cold winter weath¬ 
er. Thus from a state of rapid growth, with unripe 
wood, the trees are at once forced as by a shock, to a 
sudden state of rest; the fluids are frozen, the tender ves¬ 
sels are burst or lacerated, and a succession of warm suns 
and severe nights, augments the disaster. After speaking 
of the effects of this freezing,—lacerated passages,— 
thickened and diseased sap,—torpidity of parts,—and ob¬ 
struction of circulation,—he remarks, “ At length, the 
spring approaches. In early pruning the cultivator will 
find in those.trees, which will erelong develope blight, 
that the knife is followed by an unctuous sap, and that 
the liber is of a greenish yellow color. These will be 
the first signs, and the practiced eye will delect these 
long before a leaf is put forth.” He further adds, “ the 
leaf puts out, and no outward signs of disease appear 
nor will it appear until the leaf prepares the downward 
current. May, June, and July, are the months when the 
growth is most rapid, and when the tree requires the 
most elaborated sap; and in these months the blight is 
fully developed. When the descending fluid reaches the 
point where, the previous fall, a total obstruction had 
taken place, (from causes already mentioned,) it is as 
effectually stopped as if the branch were girdled. For 
the sap which had lodged there, would, by the winds 
and sun, be entirely dried. This would not be the case if 
the sap was good and the vitality of the tree unimpaired; 
but when the sap and vessels are both diseased, the sun 
affects the branch on the tree, just as it would if severed 
and lying on the ground. There will therefore be found 
on the tree, branches with spots where the bark is dead 
and shrunk away below the level of the surrounding bark; 
and at these points the current downwards is wholly 
stopped. Only the outward part, however is dead; while 
the alburnum or sap wood is but partially injured. 
Through the alburnum, then, the sap from the roots passes 
up, enters the leaf, and men are astonished to see a 
branch seemingly dead in the middle, growing thrifty at 
its extremity.” Thus the growth may in some cases 
continue late in summer. 
In other cases, where the downward flow of the sap, 
is only partially, and not wholly obstructed, the down¬ 
ward. current takes with it this thickened, diseased, and 
poisonous sap, and spreads the contagion gradually down¬ 
wards. 
Many interesting facts arc adduced in support of this 
theory, some of which may be briefly mentioned. The 
two great blight years in the Western States, 1832 and 
1844, were preceded by just such weather as has been 
spoken of; and a skillful cultivator predicted six months 
previously by an examination of the trees, not only the 
extent of the disaster, but what particular trees and what 
individual branches would first perish. In one case giv¬ 
en, out of 200 trees, only four escaped. These four had 
been transplanted, had grown but little during summer 
and fall, and consequently the wood was well hardened. 
But another collection of trees, also transplanted, though 
growing but little in summer, made a vigorous growth 
