§0 Society oftlie Sciences at Flushing. § 



The firf.t i? a Societv of Agriculture cptablished at Wash-r 

 ington under the special protection ni' government. 'l"he 

 president of the LInited State?, the chiefs of administration, 

 the senators and deputies to congress, are members of it in 

 right of their situation. The societv have already acquired 

 a convenient edifice, with a field of thirty acres ; the com- 

 jnencement of a library, and that excellent collection of 

 plouc;hs and other agricultural implements which formerly 

 belonged to general Washington. The form of its admi- 

 nistration, the capital which it can possess (specified in 

 bushels of wheat), and its whole organization have been 

 fixed bv its charter of incorporation, which constitutes the 

 ^;ociely into a political body, and ensures the existence of 

 it for ever. The answers to the numerous questions which 

 it sent, soon after its formation, to the societies of dift'eront 

 countries, form, it is said, an interesting work, which will 

 be published. 



The second institution is a Botanical Garden in the neigh- 

 bourhood of New York, for which the subscribers have ob- 

 tained also a charter. As soon as the large e;reen-house is 

 completed, the most curious productions of the southern 

 provinces will be sent to it. 



The third institution is an Academy of Fine Arts. The 

 first idea of this establishment originated with Mr. Living- 

 ston, the American minister at Paris ; and the public were 

 so sensible of its importance, that long before the arrival of 

 the plaster ca^ts, which that gentleman presented to it, the 

 subscribers, of twenty-five piastres each, amounted to 180. 

 Mr. Vandeline, a native of America, who has resided se- 

 veral years at Paris, where he has become an eminent 

 painter, has sent to the academy some fine paintings. 



The president, bv the s^-pport of the friends to this in- 

 stitution, has purchased for it that beautiful edifice which 

 forms the centre of the circus lately built on Hudson's river, 

 the large hall of which is lighted by a rotunda of cast iron 

 entirely filled with panes of glass. It is here that Mr. Li- 

 vingston's plaster casts, among which (here is one of the 

 celebrated Laocoon, have been deposited : and seventeen 

 pupils are already employed m making draw ings from these 

 fine models. 



SOCIETY OF THE SCIENCES AT VLUSHING. 



In the meeting of November 2, last year, at the Museum 

 in Middleburgh, the societv proposed again the two follow- 

 ing questions, announced in the year J 803, and to which 

 no answers had been received. • ' • 



LWhat 



