AGRICULTURAL METEOROLOGY. 28S 
content with a single inspection. Such a museum, once fairly inaugu- 
rated, never lacks for valuable and constantly increasing additions, and, 
in this respect, the museum of the Agricultural Department, conducted 
con a somewhat similar plan, is liable to the same experience as the 
Economical Museum at Kew, viz: want of case-room, the demand for 
which constantly exceeds the ability to display properly the articies that 
are continually accumulating. 
In conclusion, I must express my grateful acknowledgment to Dr. J. 
D. Hooker for obliging attention and unrestrained facilities for inspecting 
the establishment over which he so ably presides. 
C. C. PARRY, Botanist. 
Hon. HORACE CAPRON, 
Commissioner. 
AGRICULTURAL METEOROLOGY. 
Sre: I present a continuation of my investigations concerning the 
influence of climatic agents, atmospheric and terrestrial, upon agriculture. 
Space will not permit a review of the multitude of questions embraced 
in the subject of the influence of the climate upgp agriculture, and this 
report, therefore, will be limited chiefly to. fhe development of the prac- 
tical side of this great science, without negiecting the known principles, 
which, in the absence of laws, regulate the mutual influence preéxist- 
ing between organic and inorganic creation. I have shown the neces- 
sity for agricultural reform, and the course to be followed, according to 
the six propositions enunciated, in order to form good farmers by early 
education. The instructions on the study of periodical phenomena com- 
plete the connection between physical agents and vegetable life. The 
almost mysterious action of frosts upon plants being little known, I will 
have to treat as much on the theory as on the practical means of protec- 
tion. When we consider the enormous annual losses which are occa- 
sioned to agriculture by this influence, we appreciate the necessity of 
studying the subject thoroughly. The study of the physical conditions 
of different cultivable soils is also a subject worthy the attention of farm- 
ers, especially since chemical analysis has taken rank in agriculture. 
The world daily discourses about the influence of climate on plants 
and man, but very little comes from such discussion. Agriculturists 
also neglect their experience, and fall into that fatal routine which con- 
tinues from generation to generation. The reason lies simply in the 
want of a scientific base and a true method of investigation. At other 
times it depends upon the richness of virgin soils, which demand 
very littie attention; nature does its own work. But when the soii 
begins to be exhausted, where the climate is unfavorable, and where 
physical and vital perturbations are felt, the cultivator discovers the 
necessity of returning to science; even when the conditions of fertility 
are found, we are not sure that in following this or that method we ob- 
tain the maximum of crop which tillage can offer. Every day we per- 
ceive our error and introduce new methods. But how? Mostly with- 
out fixed principles and after purely casual practice, and, therefore, the 
results obtained are not satisfactory. Farmers, again, are unable to ex- 
plain why this or that tillage gives such marvelous production on a soil 
conclusively reduced, while near to it no human power can obtain the 
Same results; such as the culture of the sugar-cane and tobacco in Cuba, 
8A 
