154 



uing up to SO ceuts, 61.10, and 81.-0 in gold, as per quality. There is a 

 considerable quantity of wool (mohair) in the hands of breeders, yet it 

 isuot in sufheient quantities to induce the parties holding it to take the 

 trouble to ship it to thi-. East. 



Sixth. Tlie skins of low-grade wethers, disjjosed of for mutton, are 

 now dressed — the inferior ones into leather for the manufacture of boots, 

 shoes, and gloves, while the b(itter ones have been dressed with the 

 fleece on, and used extensively and profitably in the manufactui-e of 

 robes, ladies' furs, &c. 



Aghicultueal Associations. — Mr. F. H. Gordon, president of the 

 Smith County (Tennessee) Agricultural Club, in the course of a recent 

 letter, makes the following observations touching the great importance 

 of agricultnral associations: 



Our club unriuimonsly approves tlae cfTorts of your Dcpai'tmcnt to culi^liten out 

 farmers. And liere permit mo to say that if the Department of Af^ricnlture can induce 

 farmers everywhere to form small clubs of eight or ten members, and bind them per- 

 manently together by motives of self and social interest, so as to induce tbem to attend 

 all their meetings regularly, and to devote mncli time to the study of agriculture at 

 home, then our whole industrial Y>opnlation Viill educate themselves in their profes- 

 sions, and make rapid improvement in the means of living and the prosperity of the 

 country. There can be no general education which is not self-education. A State 

 cannot" educate the people. They can and must educate themselves. The State can 

 stiuHilate, foster, and facilitate self-edneatiou. To do this, the Government must reach 

 every citizen at home, individually. If your Dei)artment can induce the farmers to 

 form small neighborhood clubs everywhere, then you can reach every one tiirough his 

 club. Yv'hat our National Legislature and j-our Department ought to do, in order to 

 accomplish this desired object, must bo left to the best miuds of the nation. It is evi- 

 dent that farmers will not readily and generally send their sons to our agricultural 

 colleges until they themselves have been partly educated. They must first appreciate 

 the value of science before they will send their sons to college. Hence, the work of 

 reform must commence on the farm and at the tireside. Eut to accomplish tbis object 

 your Department must organize small neighborhood cliib.s everywhere, and send 

 them the science of water, air, soil, and the animal and vegetable kingdoms. These 

 documents vill be their text-books at home. Thus the Kational Legislature will 

 enable your Department to educate all farmers at the fireside and on the farm ; 

 and thus the United States jiresent to the world the first educated community. 

 But you cannot get the people generally to form small clubs, unless you offer them 

 some strong inducements. You must teach them that the Government "will famish 

 them v>'ith books, documents, and other favors, onlj' upon the condition that they shall 

 use them. They should be required to form clubs before receiving any favors ; and 

 more; so long as such favors are continued they should re^wrt annually to your De- 

 partment. 



jSTecessities of soutiieen AGrvicuLTURE. — 3Ir. Harvey Ham- 

 mond, of Augusta, South Carolina, under date Marcli 2, 1872, writes as 

 follows : 



I return to yon the nolinowledgments and thanks of the Beech Island Farmers' 

 Club for the seeds sent by the Department of Agriculture. They have reached us 

 safely, and have been distributed. I trust in due time to report a good result from 

 their trial. The members of the club would likewise signify to you their appreciation 

 of J'our expressions of interest in southern agriculture. We feel more and more the 

 need of information as the problems set l)elbre us by the emancipation of our laborers 

 continue daily to widen. Trained to work, laborers employed by us for their own and 

 their children's children's lifetime, we find ourselves constantly out of our depth as wo 

 try to fathom the m.aTiy and profound changes retpiired by .1 system tb.at employs la- 

 borars by the day and l)y the job. j'"'or instance, we cannot understand how it is that, 

 with a soil and climate producing crops that give a. mucli larger money yield iier acre 

 ihan in tlie Northern and Wef^tern States, Ave are not al>le to pay one-fourth tht^ wages 

 to labor that are paid there. Jt may be that a laborer does more there than he does 

 liere, and we therefore feel a great interest in knowing the cost of the v.arious sorts of 

 farm work by the piece in tlie different sections, r. {/., daily wages being $1, what does 

 it cost to break up, broadcast, .an acre of ground, to plant an aero of wheat, to bnild 

 100 feet offence, to lay off .an acre of corn, to cut ;in acre of grass, &C., &c. 



In meteorology, too, we would ]>e benefited by some more general statements. As, 

 for instance, .1 record for successive years of tlie ]:ist frost in spring, and the first frost 

 in autuiuTi ; th(^ s)(j?)sof the temperature, of the rain-fall, &c., for each season, and dnr- 



