to the Legislature of the State of New York. 259 
of teaching, and two academies last year furnished seventy teachers, 
who are now, we trust, fountains of knowledge to large circles of pupils. 
The first “ Abstract” shows the course of studies pursued at the 
different academies—besides Arithmetic, English Grammar, Geog- 
raphy and Latin and Greek, we find Book-keeping, Biblical and 
Roman Antiquities, Constitutions of New York and the United 
States, Criticism, Rhetoric, Logic, Intellectual and Moral Philoso- 
_ phy, Evidences of Christianity, Natural Theology, Political Econo- 
my, History, History and Statistics of the United States, Princi- 
ples of Teaching, Hebrew, German, French and Spanish, Drawing, 
Painting, Vocal and Instrumental Music, Algebra, Geometry, Plane 
and Spherical Trigonometry, Mensuration, Navigation, Surveying 
and Engineering, Conic Sections, Differential and Integral Calculus ; 
Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, illustrated by apparatus and ex- 
periments ; Astronomy, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Technology, Veg- 
etable Physiology, Topography, and Architecture. 
Meteorological returns, more or less complete, embracing observa- 
tions upon the thermometer, the wind and weather, were made by 
forty-three academies, which are scattered over an extent of six de- 
grees of longitude, and about four degrees of latitude. We die 
some of the most interesting summaries. 
The annual mean temperature, as deduced from the average of the 
complete returns of thirty-four academies, is 47°47° ; the highest de- 
gree during the year, (99°) was observed at Dutchess County and 
Montgomery Academies; and the lowest, (—30°,) at Gouverneur 
and Oxford; greatest annual range (128°,) at Gouverneur ; great- 
est monthly range (84°,) at Oxford; a remarkable uniformity ap- 
pears in the climate during the winter, from the fact that the coldest 
day at thirty-five places, occurred, with three exceptions, upon the 
26th or 27th of January; at eighteen places, the 26th was coldest. 
The prevailing winds for the year were, south at sixteen places, 
south-west at ten, and north-west at six. Average of rain and snow 
at thirty-three places, 37:21 inches ; greatest quantity, 53°46 inches, 
at Kinderhook. August was the wettest month at seventeen places. 
The miscellaneous observations, collected from the “ Reports,” 
and from periodicals, upon the progress of vegetation, &c., aurora 
borealis, haloes, meteors, earthquake, and weather, are very numer- 
ous and interesting. 
Mineralogy has its observer, as appears from one of the Reports; 
botany holds a prominent place, as indicated by two catalogues ; one 
