494 



THE FARMER'S iMAGAZINE. 



In Massachusetts there is a State Reform School for 

 vagrant boys, at which experiments in the cultivation of 

 crops, the breeding of animals, and other departments 

 of farm economy are made under the direction of the 

 State Board of Agriculture. 



The General Government has been greatly importuned 

 to erect a Department of Agriculture, to be under the 

 control of a Secretary, who should hold equal rank 

 with the Cabinet officers. It is urged, that the agricul- 

 ture of the United States is so pre-eminently the great 

 national interest, that its advancement can only be pro- 

 moted by a department especially devoted to it. Accord- 

 ing to the census of 1850, the number of the free male 

 population engaged in agriculture was twenty-four 

 hundred thousand, or forty-four (44.60) per cent. ; 

 while the total number engaged in commerce, trade, 

 manufactures, mechanics, arts, and mining, was only 

 sixteen hundred thousand, or about thirty per cent. 

 (29.72). The capital invested in agriculture was five 

 billions of dollars, and that represented by all other 

 branches of industry less than one billion. Why, then, 

 say the advocates for an Agricultural Department, 

 should this mighty interest have no representative in 

 the Government, except a subordinate bureau of the 

 Patent Office, under the management of a simple clerk 

 and assistants ? Our legislators, while recognizing the 

 cogency of these appeals, still will take no steps to- 

 wards the desired change, because they believe themselves 

 restrained by the terms of the constitution. 



A great public sentiment has, however, been forming 

 for some years past, and we can scarcely fail to see the 

 change made, when its paramount necessity shall be 

 felt. At present annual appropriations are made by 

 Congress for the collection of agricultural statistics, for 

 promoting agriculture and rural economy, and for (he 

 procurement and distribution of seeds and cuttings, and 

 a certain amount of good is realized thereform by the 

 country at large. A report is annually issued by the 

 agricultural bureau, of which a quarter of a million of 

 copies are printed by Government for gratuitous distri- 

 bution by Members of Congress to their constituents. 

 The first appropriation by Government for the diffusion 

 of agricultural matters was made in 1839, at the sug- 

 gestion of the Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, then Com- 

 missioner of Patents, and amounted to the paltry sum 

 of ,£200. The report for that year contained but fifty- 

 four pages, and besides agricultural information contained 

 other mechanical subjects. 



The appropriations were steadily increased, and the 

 volume enlarged, until now sixty thousand dollars are 

 annually given, and the report has swelled to live hun- 

 dred and fifty-two pages. If the clerk at the head of 

 the bureau were more efficient, much better results 

 would be attained ; but we are better off with the little 

 we have than we would be if nothing were done for the 

 agricultural interest. 



The bill of the Hon. Justin Morrill, providing for a 

 grant of public lands to each State, for the maintenance 

 of an Agricultural College, the features of which vrere 

 given in my last communication, passed both Houses of 

 Congress, but was vetoed by the President. The bill 



passed the House, by 104 yeas to 100 nays, and the 

 Senate concurred by 25 yeas to 23 nays, three-fourths 

 of the members in either body from the Free States 

 voting in its favour. 



The President assigns as his reasons for his veto : 



I. That the bill has been passed at a time of em- 

 barrassment, when we can with difficulty raise revenue 

 sufficient to meet the wants of Government, and that its 

 large grants of public land would effectually deprive the 

 Treasury of a large source of revenue. 



II. That it is not provided in the Constitution that 

 the public lands may be given away without recompence, 

 for such purposes. 



III. That it would have the effect of making the 

 several States stipendiaries upon the general Govern- 

 ment, and thus makes a precedent that would be pro- 

 ductive of disastrous consequences, in authorizing future 

 appropriations for unworthy objects. 



IV. That it would operate to the prejudice of new 

 States, for their fertile lands would have been concen- 

 trated at low prices into the hands of speculators, and 

 emigrants would be compelled to pay these men enormous 

 profits, or chose some other locality. 



V. That existing colleges would be injured, for the 

 gratuitous instruction afforded at these State institutions 

 would draw all young men to them, and the older 

 colleges would be ruined. 



In my capacity as an impartial chronicler, it is not 

 fitting that I should enter into arguments to show the 

 sophistryembraced in someof these objections. They com- 

 mend themselves to each reflective political economist. 



The Illinois State Agricultural Society, at an Execu- 

 tive meeting in February, passed the following resolution : 



" Resolved, that the Executive Committee offer the 

 sum of three thousand dollars (£'600) as a first pre- 

 mium, and two thousand dollars (£400) as a second 

 premium for steam-engines suitable for ploughing, and 

 other farm work. The simplicity and economy of their 

 construction, and the practicability of their application 

 to farm uses, shall be such that the machines can com- 

 pete with animal power." 



Thus your mechanics will see that we continue to feel 

 a deep interest in the great question of steam-cultiva- 

 tion. Besides the plough of Mr. Fawke's, which was 

 fully described in a former letter, S. K. Basset, of 

 Galesburgh, Illinois, has invented a new steam-plough, 

 in which the wheels of the truck of a traction steam- 

 engine are so arranged that the truck may be readily 

 guided and turned, and the engine rendered available 

 for drawing a gang of ploughs to turn over the earth in 

 the usual way. The invention also consists in a peculiar 

 manner of attaching and applying the gang of ploughs 

 to the trucks ; also in the employment of track clearers, 

 arranged in a novel way, and in so attaching the boiler 

 to the truck that it is allowed to remain in a horizontal 

 position when the track rises and falls in correspondence 

 with the inequalities in the surface of the ground. 



Our inventors, you see, as well as your own, are 

 groping in the dark, making efforts to use the present 

 unsuitable form of the plough-breast, by attaching to it 

 some traction power, either a stationary engine, or a 



