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with husbandry, and to the encouragement and general progress of 

 agriculture in that republic. The subjects that are embraced in its 

 statements and discussions afford gratifying evidence of a zealous inter- 

 est in the development of the natural resources and agricultural capa- 

 bilities of the country. These subjects embrace forest-culture ; diseases 

 of cereals ; cultivation by steam ; breeding of cattle ; epizootic diseases ; 

 cultivation of the grape, the eucalyptus, rice, Indian corn, tobacco, &c. ; 

 wool, and the wool-trade ; and a great variety of other topics. Among 

 them is a curious article on the sunflower, a plant in the cultivation of 

 which, for various economical puri)oses, an unusual interest has recently 

 been excited in this country. Its culture in the Argentine Eepublic is 

 strongly urged from the following considerations : The flowers are said 

 to afford bees the best material for honey and wax ; the petals are re- 

 garded as valuable for dyeing i^urposes; the seeds yield 50 per cent, 

 of an excellent cooking and illuminating oil, superior food for poultry, and 

 food for cows, which increases the production of milk ; the bottom ot 

 the caly? resembles the artichoke, and can be used as food in the same 

 way ; the wood yields 1 per cent, of potash, while common hard wood 

 yields only one-tenth as much ,• the leaves are used as food for animals, 

 and make a good smoking tobacco ; and the bark, properly prepared, 

 affords material for the manufacture of paper. 



A model farm is to be established by the agricultural department of 

 the Argentine Eepublic, which is under the direction of M. Oldendorff, 

 at Santa Catalina, about twelve miles from Buenos Ayres. The govern- 

 ment has determined to exjiend half a million dollars in forming an 

 academy, a farming school, and a gardening school, on the model of similar 

 institutions in other countries. The studies to be i)ursued are, general 

 farming, gardening, the care of horses and poultry, botany, growth ot 

 timber, chemistry, geology, land-surveying, machinery, drawing, and 

 modern languages. The model farm will be conducted by students, from 

 whom no pay for instruction will be required. 



The department has also been favored by Seiior Garcia, the minister 

 of the Argentine Eepublic, resident at Washington, with a list of 

 American exhibitors who obtained prizes at a late national exhibition 

 at Cordova, the capital of one of the most important states of that 

 republic. The list embraces the ndmes of some twenty citizens of the 

 United States, to whom gold and silver medals, as first and second x^rizes, 

 were awarded, for improved implements of agriculture — plows, reapers, 

 scythes, irrigators, corn-scatterers, hand-pumps, and other articles. 



Under date of the 9th of May, General Charles P. Stone, recently of the 

 United States, and now general and chief of staff' of His Highness the 

 Khedive of Egypt, writes that with the rapid increase of area of culti- 

 vable lands in that country, resulting from the wise improvements of 

 the present Khedive, there is a lack of laborers for taking full advantage 

 of the rich soil, and that hence the attention of land-owners is turned 

 to the introduction of good practical labor-saving machines. The De- 

 partment is solicited, therefore, to furnish sketches of such machines in 

 agriculture as are simple and strong in their construction, and do not 

 require too much skilled labor to manage and repair them. Hints upon 

 cotton, rice, sugar, and tobacco culture, as practiced in this country, are 

 said by General Stone to be seized upon with avidity by the cultivators 

 of Egypt. The chemist of the agricultural de]1artment of Egypt has 

 for a considerable period been engaged in testing various kinds of wheat, 

 to ascertain which is most valuable in that climate. He finds that 

 an Algerian wheat, after eight years of trial, has not deteriorated. 

 •General Stone suggests that this wheat would be valuable in the extreme 



