The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-07-22
The Farmers Club.

gratifying interviews that has ever been had by the
people Of this vicinity.
The Farmers' Club.
On Tuesday at noon the semi monthly meeting Of
the above Society held at their rooms in Broad
way, Mr. Tinelli in the chair, when an interesting
paper read by Judge Megs the secretary, on the
Earth, Plants, and Man, extracted from work
by Joachim Frederick Schouw, Professor of Botany
in the University Of Copenhagen. This paper con-
tanned much interesting antiquarian information.
The plants disclosed in the ruins Of Herculaneum,
Pompeii, and Stable, enable us to judge Of the
alterations in them during the long period OF
nearly ZOO years. Among other articles there dis
covered was glass jar containing olives, which
still retained their flavor With respect to the cotton
plant Professor Schouw observes that its history can
be traced with toersble degree Of probability, to
periods before the birth Of Christ, when its appica
ton was confined to India. Cotton Is supposed to
have been introduced into China in the ninth CEN
tury before which time silk was the general cloth
ing, while now the poor clothe in cotton and the
rich in silk. Cotton s.uEs were Of very limited use
in the middle ages There we're cotton manufacto.
res in Granada, Spain, in the thirteenth century,
Venice in the fourteenth in Flanders in the sixteenth
in England in the seventeenth. 1t was difficult to
Indians and Chinese had Carried 1t to considerable
degree of perfection and labor with them was very
cheap Machinery has now reversed all this; one man
with one spinning machine spins as much yarn IN o
day aRan Indian does with the distat in whole year.
Respecting sugar, he says that the Greeks and Ro.
mans gnacquainted with the general use OF II;
il is however, Of great antiquity IN Cnina and per
cited as the native homes of the sugar cane, and
where it is found growing wild. The crusades ex.
tended the knowledge of sugar in Europe. Prince
Henry the navigator, carried the sugar cane from
Sicily to Madeira, towards the year 50O it went to
the Canaries, then 70 ST. Domingo and thus through
the West Indies
The subject for discussion was, q The Benefit Of
Railroads to Agriculture" in which Mr.. Scion
Robinson, Judge Van Wyck Mr. Judd, Professor
Mares, andtother gentlemen, took part. Much val
liable information was elected, and MIR. Scion Robin
son, who gave the initiative, presented mass Of sta
tistics upon the catt trade between New York and
the Western States, which showed the vast impor-
lance of railroads to our city as means Of Supply.
il us with our food. Our ellow-ctizens little
aware that in the Spring they would have suffered
from want of meat if it had not been for the accom-
mediation afforded b railroads in transporting to
seaboard the produce OF the distant Western States
1t would be rare to find hundred head of cattle
in the New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and
that come from the West By means Of railroads
cattle are brought from the farhest parts of Hi
nois, by way Of Chicago within o week at the ut
most while it would require from fifty to nnsty
Of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Arkansas. As an
instance of the cattle ira le, and Of the distant To-
calities from whence they were brought, Mr. Robin
son observed, that on Monday week past there had
been offered for sale lot of cattle raised originally
by the Indians Of the Cherokee Nation; west Of
Arkansas, marked with their heroglyphics. These
cattle were bought by an Illinois droyer, and pas
tured upon the grand praries OF the West for one
summer, and fed through the winter upon the abun-
dance of corn that grows in Southern Illinois, They
were this Spring started upon their travels eastward
and were finally butchered in New York. Ten miles
per day is the average journey of a drove, and,
therefore, if it was not for railroads New York could
not support its population. As another instance Ut
the benefits Of railroads to agriculture Mr.. Robin
son entered into the statistics Of the milk
trade. Milk is brought daily by the rail-
road from as far as Chatham Four Corners,
$50 miles distant. The country bordering upon the
Camden and Amboy Railroad was formerly desert,
but since the introduction Of railroads through that
district it had become one of the best portions of the
state. AS another instance of the benefit accruing
from railroads, he instanced the transmission of
blackherries to the New York and Philadelphia
markets, which would otherwise have been eaten by
the birds, and great had this trade become that
there blackberry train. Still it eXtraordi.
nary that the farmers in general were opposed to
railroads.
information upon the same subject, and alluded to
the benefits that the farmers derived from railroads
in the cheap sms on Of fertilizers With respect
to what had been said by Mr. Judd Of farmers being
stockholders in railroads, it would be found that the
capitalists of Great Britain held by far the greater
part. The farmers had originally opposed the Hud-
son River Railroad; perhaps they we're Of
different opinion; but it found difficult at first to
induce them TO join. The cheap transportation Of
lumber was likewise an advantage obtained by rail-
roads, another the transport Of fruit; there
more fruit conveyed into the New York market in
month by the Camden and Amboy Railroad than
was consumed altogether in Great Britain during
a year. Eleven hundred dollars had been re-
ceved on that railroad for the transport of
fruit in one day. Milk was brought by the Erie
Railroad from a very great distance, and many deal
Mr.. Judd who had, at an earlier period previously
TO Mr. Mapes, stated that farmers were generally in
favor OF railroads, now explained that the farmers
in the western part Of New York State had advanced
the capital required for starting them.
Dir. Scion Robinson proposed, the subject for
the next meeting "On soiling cattle the best kind of
plants for the purpose the advantage OF soilng
IasturDg upon small FARMS