ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 287 



farmers thought there would be, as the dry weather caused the apple 

 to drop before their time, and grapes dried on the vines. 



Hoping you will excuse any and all mistakes, if they are not as 

 they should be and as I am a new beginner. I should like to be with 

 you at Lexington next month, as I then could learn more in a few days 

 than I can at home in that many years. If I had not already made ar- 

 rangements to go west I should have postponed until after the meet- 



ing. 



Yours Eespectfully, 



FRAXK J. SCHATZ, 



Lone Tree, Mo. 



BIRDS AKD AGEICULTURE. 



BY CLARKE lEVINE, OREGON. 



So much has been written and published on about every subject 

 of our deliberations that I often ask, why shall we attempt to say any- 

 thing in addition unless we have new ideas. 



The general government and several societies annually send forth 

 countless volumes on agriculture, which includes in itself almost every 

 art and science known to man. These works are gotten up in the very 

 best style, and the subjects treated of are handled in a masterly man- 

 ner, yet no one scarcely ever reads them. And this is our justification 

 for continuing our own work. We may regard ourselves as interpre- 

 ters of what has been previously given, as well as discoverers in our 

 own especial lines. We are assumfng no superior knowledge but sim- 

 ply calling attention and asking for co-operation, and in no country is 

 such effort more necessary than in ours, for in no country is agricul- 

 ture and other subjects in immediate. and necessary connection with it 

 so intellectually neglected and legislatively despised. 



For this grandest of all subjects for study and objects of action to 

 which the tongue of man has ever given a name, if we do a little we 



