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variety, including recent remarkable improvements, and the faney 
products, once sought only by the epicure, which are rapidly making 
their way to all well-supplied tables. 
The collection of fibers, poth textile and paper-making, if not exhaust- 
ive, is representative, and broadly illustrative of these important 
branches of mechanical, extension of the raw material. About five 
hundred samples of wool are shown, representing the principal breeds 
established in this country, with their crosses of every grade. Though 
a majority of the samples havea growth of but ten months, they are 
generally fine specimens, making an. exceedingly interesting exhibit. 
The system of illustrating processes of manufacture by a series of their 
products enables the farmer to see, in any style of piece-goods, shawls, 
carpets, or flannels, the particular grade of wool which enters into its 
composition and the various processes by which the special result is 
accomplished. In the cotton collection there are about one hundred and 
twenty samples, showing the principal known varieties cultivated, both 
inlint and seed... Here the processes of manufacture are likewise shown, 
from the raw material, through all its ten or twelve changes, to the manu- 
factured fabric, as well.as.the numerous varieties of fabrics made from 
this textile. Flax and jute are shown in the same case. A great variety 
of miscellaneous fibers, including silk, ramie, flax, cotton, hemp, ascle- 
pias, and many of the fibers from the far West, of little utility in manu- 
facture, and yet interesting as showing the resources of the country, are 
also presented. 
A yaluable collection of paper materials, avout one hundred samples, 
exhibits, from the raw material to finished paper, the manufacture: of 
bogus, scrap, and rope manila, straw, book and colored paper, flat and 
linen. paper, besides a number of kinds of material not in general use, 
such as okra, spartina, ramie, yucca, aud others. Wasp-paper is shown 
as a sample of the first manufacture of paper—by the present process— 
from wood. 
The exhibit of models of fruit and vegetables, made of plaster painted 
in oil-colors, fills four cases and a part of two others. In all it com- 
prises nearly three thousand specimens, illustrating about one thousand 
varieties of the apple, six hundred of the pear, fitty of the potato, be- 
sides plums, cherries, melons, pumpkins, and roots. The amount of 
space allotted was not sufficient for the display of the entire collection. 
The apples include several specimens of each of the standard varieties, 
like the Baldwin, Noi thern Spy, etc., to show the characters assumed by 
the same kind when grown in different parts of the country. There are 
also some of the distinctively southern apples, such as the Hilton, Nick- 
ajack, Shockley, etc. Among the pears is a small collection of some 
varieties new or little known, from original specimens contributed by 
Hilwanger & Barry. The miscellaneous models are samples of seed- 
ling strawberries grown by the Department; twelve different kinds of 
melons, including all that are usually raised for market ; a large pump- 
kin, the original of which weighed 122 pounds; and numerous vegetables 
from Northwest Minnesota and other remote parts of the country. 
The collection of economic entomology, filling twenty-four glass-coy- 
ered drawers or boxes, occupies one high case next to the collection of 
small birds. Over one thousand specimens are exhibited, and these 
are arranged, not according to their classification, into families, genera, 
&e., but with regard to the food-plant, or more particularly the farm- 
product injured or destroyed by them. Thus, under the head of potato 
the various insects known. to injure the plant, in root, stalk, leaf, or 
fruit, are shown from, egg to perfect insect, when practicable, accom- 
