years since, introduced a machine and apparatus for rotting flax and hemp, by keeping it at a temperature say ninety deg. I think it a geographical difficulty; our country is too new; our population is too much separated to work to advantage.

Mr. Adrian Bergen.-We tried flax some years ago upon Long Island, but had to give it up, because it was not a profitable crop. The labor of preparing it by hand for market is altogether too great.

Mr. Solon Robinson.-The following direction in relation to growing flax was prepared by Messrs. Harry Wilcox and Enos Durham, extensive flax growers in Washington and Rensselaer counties, New York:

"Generally any good corn land will grow good flax, but (we consider) the best land in our section is an upland gravelly loam, which yields the finest lint, and is generally best coated. Seed should be sown as early as possible, but not so early as to be injured by frost. One bushel of seed to the acre, as a general thing, would be sufficient, but when the land is strong five pecks would be better. We generally sow from the 5th to the 10th of May. If the land is rolled after sowing the seed, the crop may be cut with the reaper instead of pulling-it would also benefit the crop.

"The time to pull or harvest the crop is when the stalks begin to turn yellow, and the leaves to drop off. The cost of pulling per acre is from $5 to $8-when pulled or cut it should be placed on end or bound in bundles, of from three to four inches in diameter, and stacked in small shocks, so that the air can circulate through it freely until dry; then it should be taken to some convenient place for taking off the seed, with a machine for that purpose. The flax is taken in both hands and passed down through the pulleys or rollers until the balls are all broken, the seed dropping below.

"The flax for retting or rotting should be spread on grass land, and if in dry, warm weather, early in the season, it ought to be spread on low meadow land; if late in the season, any grass land is suitable. At any season of the year it should be spread thin, not more than one pound to two feet running measure. It should be allowed to remain until the fiber turns silver gray, then turn and let it remain until the other side is like the first. In turning, a pole is used from eight to ten feet long. If the weather is rainy, and the straw in consequence is liable to be over retted or rotted, in order to save it, it should be placed on end in small shocks, of from two to three feet in diameter, and remain until dry weather. When dry, it should be bound in bundles of convenient size for handling, and either stacked like oats, and thatched on the top, or placed under cover. If stacked, the seed ends should point to the center of the stack.

"One year with another, one acre of good corn land will yield one ton of retted or rotted straw, an average of from ten to twelve bushels of seed, and an average of from 400 to 450 pounds of lint (if the most approved machinery is used in dressing), which is now worth in this section twentyfive cents per pound. We sometimes let out the whipping off the seed and rotting, and the average price paid is $3 per acre."

Mr. W. S. Carpenter.-Clover and timothy seed always sell at good paying prices.

Mr. Solon Robinson called the attention of Illinois farmers to the fact

that dried peaches are regularly sold higher in this city than raisins, and that there is no better place for the growth of the fruit than Southern Illinois; and that it certainly should be produced as low as raisins, which pay a large duty, beside cost of production.

. Mr. Lancaster.-We import largely of silk. I hope the time will come when silk will be produced in our country. I would suggest hops.

Mr. Carpenter. The cultivation of the hop is very precarious in our country. I know, some years since, the farmers of Delaware county quitted the making of butter, and went largely into the cultivation of the hop, but at that time hops sold for such a small price in this market, that they soon returned to the making of butter.

The Secretary.-Hops are now in great demand since the brewing of ale and lager bier has so increased in our country. Large quantities are exported to England, where they sell for remunerating prices.

Mr. R. G. Pardee.—I see among our visitors to-day, Mr. R. C. McCormick, Chief Clerk of the Department of Agriculture at Washington. I hope he will give us some information in what is doing in that department.

Mr. McCormick.—I have risen from a sick bed to attend the meeting of the Club to-day. I came as a listener, and did not expect to say a word to-day on the importance of agriculture. I congratulate you, gentlemen of the Farmers' Club, that the government of the United States has established the Department of Agriculture; the interest of the farmers of the country will doubtless sustain and cherish it.

*;

It is true, the Patent office has done a little in this matter, but from the time of Washington to the present; agriculture has never occupied any distinctive position in our government.

The Department has commenced the formation of a museum, in which is already collected a number of things of interest to the agriculturist; among them are specimens of cotton grown in sixty different sections of Illinois; the specimens are very good, and there is no doubt that cotton can be raised in the whole of the southern portion of that State.

Sorghum is rapidly becoming an important crop in Illinois and other western States. From statistics received at the Department, it appears that about forty millions of gallons of sorghum syrup were manufactured out of the crop of 1862.

:

Experimental gardens have been established at Washington, and it is intended that others shall be located in different sections of the country. The objects and aims of these gardens are to procure and encourage the transmission of seeds, cuttings and plants from all sources, both foreign and domestic, for the purpose of testing their merits and adaptation for particular locations and climate of our country, to ascertain by experiment the influence of varied modes of culture, to investigate the various maladies and diseases of plants, the insects that destroy them, &c.

I am pleased to see that there is a growing taste for agriculture, and that gentlemen who have amassed fortunes in our city, hie to the rural districts and make it the height of their ambition to possess fine farms.

I see before me men who have been educated to the plow, and I rejoice to know that such men meet weekly to discuss important subjects connected with agriculture, that are constantly coming before the Club.

And when peace again shall occupy our borders, when our swords shall be bent into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks, and we shall again be one and a united people, agriculture will occupy one of the noblest positions in our country's history.

PAPER FROM INDIAN CORN HUSKS.

Mr. McCormick.-I beg leave to present for your inspection a variety of specimens of paper made from Indian corn husks, which have been forwarded to the Department of Agriculture, with the following description:

"The consequences of the enormous paper consumption are felt more and more, because the paper manufacturers meet every day with greater difficulties to procure a sufficient supply of raw material necessary for the working of their factories. The rags, which are mostly used for the paper pulp, cannot be produced at will, like other raw materials. The supply is confined, as well in regard to quality as quantity, to a certain limit, influenced by the activity of the rag gatherers.

"It is, therefore, evident that the moment must come, sooner or later, when it is absolutely impossible for the paper manufacturers to keep pace with the paper consumption, if they should not succeed to discover a satisfactory substitute for rags. Indeed, their exertions have been directed to this for years; and experiments, tried not without success, have proved the existence of many materials containing fibers which might serve as a substitute for rags. But few are adapted for manufacturing purposes, partly because most of them are too costly, and partly because they cannot be produced in sufficient quantities. Only plauts of culture are produced in great quantities. Of these, the maize plant is the best adapted for paper manufacturing...

"In the last century two maize straw paper manufactories were in existence in Italy, according to Dr. Joh. Christ Schaffer's Sä entliche Pupierversuche, Regansburgh, 1772, but the process seems to have been

lost.

'A certain Moritz Diamant, from Bohemia, directed recently again the attention to the importance of the maize plant as a substitute for linen rags, and indicated a process for the transformation of maize fibers into paper pulp. He presented already, in the year 1856, to Baron Bruck, then Minister of Finance, a project with regard to it.

"The imperial paper manufactory (Schlögelmühle), near Gloggnitz, was consequently ordered to make, under Diamant's direction, out of a certain quantity of maize straw, paper. The produced paper was not satisfactory in regard to quality; also the cost of manufacturing proved to be considerably higher than that of rag paper. In consequence of such results the ministry of the finances was obliged to stop further experiments.

"Diamant, in 1859, made a second application to the Austrian Minister of the Finances, Baron Bruck, who consented to have a second trial made in the imperial paper mill, under Diamant's direction. Different kinds of paper were manufactured, partly writing, partly printing paper, which were not entirely satisfactory as far as quality, was concerned. The cost was yet, in spite of all exertions to reduce, considerably higher than that of rag paper, which was principally caused by the great distance of trans

portation of the raw material. It was proposed to undertake the manufacturing of the maize paper in a locality where maize is raised in sufficient quantities, and to take a middle course, by erecting, in an experimental way, a factory for half-stuff. The projected half-stuff factory was erected at Roman-sz-Mihály, near Temesvar, where the maize cultivation is extensive, and on the 6th day of March, 1860, it commenced to operate, under Diamant's provisional direction. The length of time fixed for experiments. was one year. Diamant promised to manufacture in this period 500 cwts. half-stuff out of maize straw, a quantum which was not half reached. The produced half-stuff was, in addition to this, so poor that further experiments and the working of the factory were suspended, in consequence of Diamant's own suggestion, before the granted time had expired.

"The exertions of the direction of the Schlögelmühle paper mill, under whose superintendence the experiments were continued, aimed principally at two things: first, to reduce the cost of production through rational improvements in the mode of manufacturing paper; secondly, to investigate how the expenses would be, if, instead of the whole straw, only the fiber stuff of the shucks, (the leaves enclosing the corn ear), containing the fibers of the best and finest quality, would be used for manufacturing paper. If these industriously continued experiments did not lead directly to the desired results-i. e., to make paper as cheap out of maize straw as out of rags they led at least indirectly to it, and, what is of greater weight, to a very important result: the discovery of a new fiber, capable of being spun or woven, which (the fiber) furnishes us, in a waste, with a cheap paper. The genesis of this discovery is as follows: The basis of all paper is vegetable fiber. The rags are but the fibers produced out of the flax, hemp or cotton plant, and used up by wearing. If these fibers would be used for paper before they would be converted into textures, the paper would be certainly better, but also incomparatively more costly. Paper of maize straw is paper of unworn plant fibers.

"After the ideas had once run into this direction, the question was brought very near: Cannot the fibers of the maize plant, before they are delivered to the paper machine, just as well be worn as the fibers of flax and hemp are worn first? In other words: Cannot the maize fiber be spun and woven? All that was necessary was a trial. It was made and

succeeded.

"It appeared that the maize fiber could be extracted out of the plant in a form like flax, by a procedure very simple, and at the same time requiring but little apparatus and auxiliary means; that it could be spun like flax, and be woven like the flax thread. ⠀

"The cultivation of this plant constitutes one of the most profitable branches of agriculture known. The plant, not taking the corn ear into consideration, which pays for itself already, the cultivation can be made useful in many different ways. Through the process applied for producing the maize fiber, the components of the plant are separated into three different parts, to wit: fibers, flour dough and gluten. The fibers are spun and woven; the nutritive substance (flour dough), which has the peculiarity to remain fresh for months in the open air-consequently to resist, unlike other unorganic substances, putrefaction gives a pleasant tasting, nutri

tive flour dough. All the fiber and gluten waste of the maize plant, which are precipitated during the process of extracting the fibers, are used for manufacturing paper.

"The most remarkable thing in regard to the process is its simplicity. The humblest laborer can learn the procedure, when he is but once instructed in writing, or verbally, and is enabled to effect the production of the above named articles on the maize field itself without the slightest expense, while owners of large farms, or manufacturers, can produce daily immense quantities in steam boilers." Adjourned.

JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary.

February 10, 1863.

Dr. Austin Church, in the chair.

POTATOES.

Mr. John Van Antwerp, of Westchester county, exhibited some potatoes called by him the Mountain White; he thought them the same as was exhibited at the Club last week, under the name of the good Samaritan; they are sold under various names. The produce of the Mountain Whites was fifteen bushels for one planted.

Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter.-I have grown the same sort-they are not a new, though a very good variety. In answer to the question to name the best sorts, he said that of 60 kinds carefully experimented with, he preferred the three following, naming them in their order of excellence: Kusco white, Pinkeye rusticoat, Garnet Chili. These are seedlings originated by Mr. Goodrich of Utica, and except where early sorts are wanted, are well worthy the notice of farmers. He asked as a favor that all would take notice that he had none of the seed for sale. For early potatoes, he said that he preferred the early Algiers, though he thought the Buckeye a very good quality, but liable to rot and not very productive. The Pellham seedling is early, but a very poor quality; with him nearly worthless except for stock, and for that purpose no better than the old Merino. I have shipped both potatoes and apples to New Orleans; the freight per barrel is from 50 to 75 cts. I realized from $3.75 to $4.00, which pays a fair profit, but the market is uncertain and can be overstocked. Butter is worth more here than there.

Dr. Trimble said that the Buckeye was a favorite sort for early market use in Monmouth county, New Jersey.

Mr. Carpenter.-I would prefer for an early crop the Algiers, Dykeman, Mountain June, in the order named. As for Mercers, I have given them up entirely six years ago, but my neighbors have stuck to them, and suffered from the rot every year, until they are now willing to try almost

any sort. I get my land in good order by deep plowing and pulverizing, plant early and use no manure, but give each hill a handful of ashes and plaster on the young tops.

Prof. Mapes.-I consider the Mammoth Nutmeg potato the best and