20 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



apparatus as is used for potatoes, the consumption of -which, in the manufacture of starch, 

 \c has hitherto been enormous. The process for extracting the bitter taste f'-oin these 

 nuts is simply a series of washings in weak alkaline water. 



Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory, who has done so much for the promotion 

 of the interests of navigation, has recently proposed, in a communication to the American 

 1 mer, that a national Bystem of meteorological observations, for the exclusive benefit of 

 the agricultural interest of the country, be established. He claims that, by an arrangement 

 simple and inexpensive, results altogether as important t" landsmen may be obtained, as 

 have been yielded by the system of research pursued under his directions at sea. In his 

 Communication, Lieutenant II. says — 



'•The germination of the seed and the growth of the plant are but the display of a me- 

 teorological force, the expression of atmospherical laws, which, when rightly understood, 

 cannot fail to confer upon agriculture and the veil-being of States benefits as signal as the 

 Stud] of the movements of the same grand machine at sea has conferred upon commerce and 

 navigation, I appeal, therefore, to the farmers, and all who are interested in the matter on 

 shore, to follow the example of the sailors, and put their shoulders to the wheel, and help 

 along the undertaking. Man by nature is a meteorologist, and everybody, whether ashore 

 or afloat, has, even if be has not the intelligence to perceive it. an interest in it." 



It is to be hoped that the vast amount of talk and "resolving"' every year expended in 

 favor of establishing a department of the General Government for the supervision and en- 

 couragement of the agricultural interests of the country, may ultimately find a termination 

 in some plan as practical as that proposed by Lieutenant Maury. Tims far. government has 

 done comparatively little or nothing for this leading branch of American industry. The two 

 hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand dollars annually expended for printing and cir- 

 culating the Latent Office reports would, if applied in a more practical man war, produce 

 t- of the greatest value. A portion of the Patent Office claims the dignity of an Agri- 

 cultural Bureau, and under the last commissioner has done something to merit the title. In 

 proportion, however, to its means, its results have been scanty; the reports are generally a 

 mass of unsystematized matter, containing a few things good, some pernicious, and much 

 that is worthless — the good being like a grain of wheat in a bushel of chaff. The ll'rticul- 

 Utriii Btates that many of the seeds "sent out year after year, as novelties, are bundles of 

 perfect trash," and plants growing in the United States are said to have been imported at 

 expense from foreign countries. 



One of the most reliable methods of facilitating and insuring agricultural progress, tl by 

 the dissemination and circulation of good books and journals. In this respect, especial 

 lit must be awarded to Messrs, C. M. Saxton & Co., of New York, who have made agri- 

 cultural literature a speciality. The number of books pertaining t" agriculture and rural 

 economy now published bj this house i- upwards of sixty, the majority of which are of a 

 highly practical and soientifia character. 



hall, also, do no more than justice, in taking advantage <d' our position as a reviewer. 

 to award a hug'- measure of praise to the Scientific Amtriecm for its early and aoeurate reports 

 of the progr ess of improvemenl In respect to agricultural machines and implement-. This 

 papei ; - the only journal in the country thai describes in /hfl American agricultural inventions. 



The contributions made to agricultural literature during the past year have been numerous 



and Important An assay has been published by Karon Liebig, with the especial >iew of re- 



og the positions In respect to manures which Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, of England, 



assert to have been established by lh. inent-. Thi-. the friends of the great elnmist 



Claim, has been done most triumphantly. 



A journal. devoted to veterii. 00, the only publieatioli of the kind in the I 



States, has recently ban established In Boston, under the auspices of Dr. George II. Dadd. 



w ■ have thai briefly noted ion f the mesnorable Incidents and pointi of progress m the 



iculturai history of the jreai 1864 5. Wt think ire en not In laying that marked im- 



prOVOmani hai been made, and that thfl pro mis e for future years i- most Mattering. 



