THE CINCINNATUS. 



VOL. 11. JANUARY 1, 1857. NO. 1. 



Art. I.— the AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF OUR 

 GOVERNMENT— DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS, Etc. 



On meeting witli one of our Congressmen elect, a few days since, 

 he knowing that we were engaged in experimenting on our farm 

 connected with our college, kindly offered us a large package con- 

 taining a number of choice kinds of wheat, such as Blue Stem, 

 Turkish Flint, etc., nicely labeled and sent from the United States 

 Patent Office. Another of our leading Horticulturists of Cincinnati, 

 requested us to call, as he had received a large quantity of seeds 

 that he knew not what to do with, and ascertain whether they would 

 be of any value to us. But as we — on application — had obtained 

 these, with many others, from head quarters ; besides, as the season 

 had passed for sowing many of them, we declined the kind offer. If 

 these men, thought we, know not what to do with valuable seeds, dis- 

 tributed at great expense by our government, what must be the fate 

 of most of the valuable seeds sent all over our country to Presidents 

 and Secretaries of Agricultural Societies, to our distinguished a.s 

 well as obscure farmers ? We were hence led to reflect how many 

 bushels of wheat has our government imported from the Baltic or 

 Black Sea, or from Asia, at the expense of agents in collecting, 

 transporting, labeling and distributing, to be fed, it may be, to 

 some favorite Shanghai or Burampooter, of the poultry yard of the 

 consignee, who happens to be the friend or constituent of the Con- 

 gressman, who has been entrusted with the distribution ! 



We have heard many exclaim, ' what shall we do with a thimble 

 full of wheat, although it may really come, as it purports, from 

 Mount Olympus, or from the Sarcophagus of an Egyptian mummy two 

 voi^. II., I.— 1. (1) 



