He was followed by Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Carter, who both agreed that it was high time some steps should be taken to ameliorate the condition of the poor children, and it was finally resolved:
That a committee consisting of Dr. Field, Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Carter, be appointed to investigate the subject, and petition the corporation that the pauper children of this city, now on the Long Island farm, be employed in horticultural pursuits generally, and also in the raising and manufacture of silk.
Mr. Stevens then made some remarks on the subject of wax-flowers and fruits, a specimen of which was exhibited by Mr. Lane. Mr. Stevens thought that a model of every new variety of fruit ought to be taken in wax, and preserved at the Repository of the Institute.
A motion was made and carried that the executive committee be instructed to consider the subject.
Gen. Tallmadge suggested that a list of donors of fruits, &c., be kept by the secretary, and placed on the records of the club at every meeting, which was unanimously agreed to.
The meeting then adjourned to Tuesday, the 28th November.
The following are the extracts on refuse gas, sent to the club by the President of the Manhattan Gas-Light Company:--
"If the properties of manure, and its agency upon the growth of the vegetable world, can be explained by chemistry, we shall find the ammoniacal liquor produced in gas-works, to be a valuable substitute for those manures, by the application of which it is intended to supply the soil with nitrogen.
"One of the most valuable manures is urine, and its excellence depends almost entirely upon the ammoniacal salts which it holds in solution. The relative value of urine as manure, depends upon the quantity of nitrogen the different kinds yield. Thus human urine is the most esteemed, and that of horned animals the least."--_Clegg's Treatise on Gas-Making._
According to Liebig, 547 pounds of human excrement contain 16.41 pounds of nitrogen; a quantity sufficient to yield the nitrogen of 800 pounds of wheat, rye, oats, or of 900 pounds of barley. How much more, then, will be supplied from an equal weight of ammoniacal liquor!
Mr. J. Watson, the manager of the gas-works at Kirriemuir, has favored me with the following facts:--