2 The Agricultural Department of our Government. [Jan., 



thousand'years old ! We have uot the time or patience to attend to 

 such small matters ! Stock, stock ! is what most concerns us. We 

 do n't want any better wheat than we have got, and then who knows 

 whether it is genuine ?' I obtained nicely labeled from this same 

 Patent Office, a most miserable kind of kale, for what purported to 

 be an extraordinary kind of cabbage. Now this whole system calls 

 for amendment or entire abrogation. Under the direction of the 

 present able officer, Mr. D. J. Browne, there has been a good degree 

 of reform in this and other particulars. But the entire plan and or- 

 ganization of the department falls far below what the character of 

 our government, and demands of the country require. And it is to 

 be feared it will bo no better, so long as agriculture shall be treated 

 and followed as a very rude and simple art — so long as among our 

 scientific and literary institutions, there shall not be found sufficient 

 interest or means to establish on a liberal scale those for the promo- 

 tion of the science of Agriculture, not only in theory, but in prac- 

 tice. The distribution of seeds, cuttings, etc., as now practiced, will 

 be a casting of bread upon the waters, that can never be gathered, 

 and must inevitably prove a waste, and result in failure. There 

 may be a few exceptions. There are men of science, men of curios- 

 ity,- possessing means and leisure, who will experiment to some profit. 

 Of these, our Patent Office reports furnish a few, veri/ few examples. 

 But even in respect to these, the Public are making a draft upon 

 them which they are under no legal or moral obligation to honor, 

 and one which this money-loving age will rarely regard, however 

 urgently pressed. In most cases, it will result in time and money 

 wasted. To reduce to the proper tests of experiment these seeds, 

 plants, tubers, etc., gathered from abroad, we must necessarily have 

 the appropriate means, skill and scientific knowledge, in order to ar- 

 rive at any valuable result. We must by some means more effectual- 

 ly unite science with practice, otherwise, true progress must be slow. 

 Without science, without aaystem based upon certain great funda- 

 mental truths, each one is left to experiment for himself; and when 

 the experiment is made, nothing is established, no foundation is laid, 

 no principle is demonstrated, which shall be of benefit under differ- 

 ent circumstances, or to the community at large. According to the 

 present order of things, a farmer who cultivates one kind of 

 land, writes to a paper that he has adopted a certain mode of cul- 

 ture for a particular kind of crop, and has met with success, and 

 hence recommends it to all, as the result of his ' experience.' An- 



