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GREAT MORTALITY AMONG LAMBS.

Mr. William W. Dean, Parma, Mich., wants information how to cure a fatal epidemic that prevails among young lambs. Out of twenty dropped this year, seventeen died immediately. "Last year," he says, "I raised thirty-five out of about one hundred. Others have lost as many as one hundred in a season, not raising a single one. The disease is indicated by lumps in the throat. It is not confined to any one farm or vicinity, nor to any particular breed of sheep, neither is it to the lambs alone; I have seen old sheep with lumps in their throats as large as a goose egg on each side. Can any member of your Club give a cause or cure ?"

No one present had had any experience in this disease.

VENTILATORS FOR BARNS.

Mr. Henry P. Peters, Southboro', Mass., in writing to the Country Gentle man upon the subject of ventilators for barns, says: "As soon as they were put up the improvement in the air of the barn was immediately noticeable; the rafter and roof boards that were ordinarily damp and sometimes wet from the condensed vapor, were at once dried, and the hay has since been sweeter and more free from must. The expense of these four ventilators, fitted and placed, including the cost of material, was $30; they are much more efficient in their operation than a cupola, as they take the air from four different parts of the barn, while a cupola operates only thoroughly near the center. I am just completing a large barn, on which have been placed three ventilators of this description, each measuring two feet square in the clear; they are made of the best of lumber, and cost, on the barn complete, at this time of high prices, $12 each. In locating them on the building, I placed one on the center of the roof, the other two one-fifth of the length of the barn from either end; this equalizes the ventilation throughout the building.

"I have a barn ninety feet in length, on each side of which cows are tied. I used to be painfully impressed with the unhealthfulness of the atmosphere for man or beast, on going into the barn on a cold winter morning, when all had been tightly closed through the night. Hoping to make an improvement, I caused four boxes, twelve by twenty-four inches, to be carried up on each side of the barn, back of the cattle, against the outside walls. These opened in the floor over the lean-to, and also on the outside of the building, just under the eaves; slides, fitted to the lower opening, regulate the draft. The plan has operated to my entire satisfaction, and with the ventilation in the roof, serves to keep the air always pure, which is no easy matter in a modern barn, containing sixty head of cattle.

"One suggestion more and I have done. Much complaint is made by those having close-sided or clapboarded barns, that the hay lying near the outer walls becomes damp and moldy. I think this may be avoided by nailing strips of board on the studs a few inches apart, which will prevent the hay touching the outside. In my own case, I have, in addition to the strips, an opening in the outer wall, near the sill in each section, six inches square; this creates ventilation and keeps all dry and sweet."

We earnestly commend the above remarks to the attention of every one who owns a barn.

WHEN TO BREAK PRAIRIE.

Mr. Wm. Bliss, Davenport, Ill., says: "With the subject of prairie breaking, that sod may rapidly decay, people differ, but I have learned by an experience of more than forty years that in this latitude between the first of June and tenth of July is the best time. I have examples to prove this." Mr. Solon Robinson. I have also had some experience in breaking prairie in every month of the year when the ground was not frozen, and I would rather have one acre broken in June and July than two acres in April and May, and than three acres in October and November. I have seen sod that was turned in November three years afterward unrotted.

DEATH OF ALEXANDER VATTEMARE.

The Chairman called the attention of the Club to the information just received of the death of this distinguished Frenchman, who was an earnest advocate for improvement, and when he was in this country attended several of our meetings, and manifested an active interest in all that we were doing for the improvement of American agriculture. The death of such a man is a great loss to the world, and is worthy of notice from any body of men with which he has been in any way associated. Gentlemen will recollect him as the person who instituted the system of national exchanges of public documents, maps, books, and historical pictures. The library of this Institute is indebted to him for several valuable works.

Dr. Holton spoke of M. Vattemare as an old and esteemed acquaintance. He knew him in Paris, where he labored eight hours a day for many years in carrying out his great purpose. Many thousands of volumes of public documents, valuable works of the history of the world, which were lying molding upon shelves or in boxes, in libraries or public offices, in all countries, this man had put in motion by his great system of national interchanges. He also alluded to the fact that the idea was first presented to his mind in this country. He came here as a distinguished ventriloquist, and while here made the acquaintance of Josiah Holbrook of Boston, who came to New York in 1836. From Mr. Holbrook he became acquainted with the system which he had originated, of exchanging small cabinets of minerals between the different district schools of the country. He had encouraged a love of study of mineralogy among children, and encouraged them to collect specimens of all the minerals in the vicinity of each. These, with the assistance of their teachers, were properly labeled and sent to other schools, often in distant parts of the country; and this system was undoubtedly the origin of the great geological survey of the State of New York, and perhaps of several other States, to the very great benefit of agriculture in all parts of the country. M. Vattemare saw at once a great utilization of waste material, and immediately set about a still greater utilization, that of the waste literature of the world. This was the origin of his system of national exchanges. It was he who originated the great American Library now open to all our countrymen in Paris. His labors, too, have laid the foundation of many other libraries. He also established schools for the poor in Paris, similar to the Ragged Schools in London or the Industrial Schools in this country. Mr. Holbrook was engaged in the same great work in Boston at an early day; but his energies were mostly

devoted to the poor, neglected colored children of that city. Mr. Holbrook lost his life in Virginia about 1854, by a fall while engaged in gathering mineralogical specimens to extend his system of mutual exchanges. The labors of both of these men have done much to advance the cause of science, literature, improvement in agriculture, and to ameliorate the condition of mankind; and they are worthy to have their names honorably mentioned in our meetings, and to be entered upon our records. Their places we cannot expect soon to fill. Let us remember them with respect. Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION.

ORGANIZED UNDER THE NAME OF THE MECHANICS' CLUB, MARCH 2, 1854, WHICH NAME WAS CHANGED TO THE POLY, TECHNIC ASSOCIATION, MARCH 16, 1859.

RULES ESTABLISHED FOR ITS GOVERNMENT BY THE BOARD OF SCIENCE AND ART.

First. A Club for the promotion of manufactures, arts, and for the discussion of mechanical subjects, is created under the name of the Polytechnic Association.

Second. The Polytechnic association is an agent of the committee of arts and sciences, and is under its entire control, in the same manner as the Farmers' Club is of the committee of agriculture. The transactions of the Association are in the name of the American Institute.

Third. The committee of arts and sciences appoint, annually, the chairman and secretary of the Polytechnic Association. In the absence of the chairman and secretary, persons to supply their places will be chosen at the meetings of the Club.

Fourth. Every member of the American Institute shall become a member of the Polytechnic Association, by signifying his intention to the chairman thereof.

Fifth. The name of any person eminent in practical mechanics, engineering, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, natural philosophy, social philosophy, geology, mineralogy, practical mining, meteorology, natural history, manufactures or the arts, may be proposed by the members of the Associa tion (by ballot, five-sixths of those present voting affirmatively) to be an honorary member of the Polytechnic Association of the American Institute; and when so proposed, if approved by the committee of manufactures, science and arts, of the American Institute, a certificate of membership shall be issued by said committee.

Sixth. The Chairman of the Polytechnic Association is authorized to arrange sections, or standing committees, embracing all the physical and exact sciences, particularly those named in section second of these rules, and to appoint a committee for each section, who shall report the doings of the sections to the Association. Members, and honorary members, shall be entitled to seats in those sections.

Seventh. Such papers read at the Polytechnic Association as are accepted for that purpose, will be printed under the direction and at the expense of the American Institute, which also provides a place of meeting, lights and fires. No other expenses are to be incurred, except by special appropriation of the American Institute, according to the rules and by-laws; nor any liability incurred by the Institute, except on special resolution.

Eighth. The meetings of the Polytechnic Association are free of all expense to those who attend them.

[AM. INST.]

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Ninth. The Polytechnic Association shall select, in advance, a subject for discussion at each of its meetings, which subject shall be announced in the call of meetings.

Tenth. Written communications to the Association are to be read by the secretary, unless objection is made; and if objected to, will be read, if it be ordered by a majority of the members present.

Eleventh. The Polytechnic Association will recommend what papers read before them, or what part of other transactions they judge worthy of publication, to the committee of arts and sciences, by which the publication may be ordered in its discretion.

Twelfth. No person attending the meetings of the Association shall speak more than once on any one subject, nor shall occupy, in such speech, more than fifteen minutes, except by permission of the Association.

Thirteenth. The chairman may invite any person to address the meeting or to participate in the deliberations, but such person, not a member, shall be announced as a visitor:

Fourteenth. Topics presented for consideration, or the announcement of a discovery or invention, improvement or novelty, or the exhibition of any machine or part thereof, or any manufacture or article, must be preceded by a statement setting forth the point, in writing, to be deliberated upon. Fifteenth. Any person desiring to put on record any supposed or real discovery in science, manufacture or arts, may address a communication to the chairman of the Association, under seal and properly endorsed, which shall be preserved in the archives of the American Institute as evidence for the party depositing the same.

Sixteenth. In all cases not provided for by the rules, Jefferson's Manual shall be taken as a standard.

Seventeenth. The official reports of the meetings of the Association shall lie upon the desk of the recording secretary until 11 o'clock of the day following the meetings, for the inspection of members, and such corrections as are necessary before going to the public press.

Eighteenth. The minutes of the previous meeting shall be read at the opening in order for correction, unless otherwise directed by the meeting. Nineteenth. No argument is allowed between members. Facts alone are to be stated.

Twentieth. All questions of order are decided, without appeal, by the presiding officer.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION,
May 7th, 1863.

Chairman, S. D. Tillman, Esq.; Secretary, John W. Chambers.

FIRES FROM SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.

The Chairman. During the past week three fires have occurred, destroying property to the value of $175,000. The first was in the Herald office, which was speedily extinguished; the second was Hay's Candle Factory, and the third was the Erie Railroad Depot at Jersey City. These three fires appear to have originated from the same cause. The one in the Herald office was attributed to the oil rags in the oil room; that in Hay's Candle Factory to grease and wick, and that in the Erie Railroad Depot to the waste used in cleaning the machinery becoming saturated with the oil. The slow combining of the oxygen of the air with oil or fat was no doubt the cause of these fires; in other words, they resulted from spontaneous combustion. Different substances vary in the temperature at which they combine with oxygen; some at the temperature of the air, others at a slight

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