10 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



Chemistry.) Twenty-five acres were planted with different varieties of corn, and treated 

 differently with various manures. The same course has also been followed with twenty acres 

 of wheat. 



Thus far, the greatest success has attended this novel enterprise, which may be regarded 

 as one of the most important steps taken for the advancement of American agriculture during 

 the past year. As its objects are by no means local or sectional, it has claims upon the 

 interests of the whole country ; and American agriculturists, in possession of cho\co seeds, 

 fruits, &c., will do no more than their simple duty in sending specimens to the superintend- 

 ent, Mr. Nicol. 



Under the auspices of the late Commissioner of Patents, Judge Mason, great activity has 

 been displayed by the Agricultural Department of the Patent Office. A large number of 

 foreign varieties of seeds and cuttings have been imported and distributed, and an agent for 

 the collection of seeds has been recently sent to Europe. In addition, also, Mr. Townsend 

 Glover has been employed for the purpose of investigating the habits of the insects injurious 

 and beneficial to crops, and illustrating the same with the view of describing them, with the 

 remedies for their diminution or destruction, and all other information on the subject, in the 

 agricultural reports. Mr. Glover has been engaged during the year past in watching the 

 operations of the rice and cotton insects in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama, the corn 

 and grain insects of the Middle and Northern States, and the insects attacking vines and 

 fruit-trees in general, as well as numerous insects beneficial to the farmer. 



The number of patents issued in the United States for improvements in agricultural ma- 

 chines, implements, and processes relating to agriculture, during the year ending July, 1855, 

 was 302 ; of this number there were issued for plows and cultivators, 40 patents ; for seed- 

 planters, 45; grain and grass harvesters, 61; straw-cutters, 19; winnowers, corn-shellers, 

 and threshers, 34. 



In no one department does American agriculture appear to such advantage as in respect 

 to its implements and machines for facilitating or economizing labor. Since the establishment 

 of the Patent Office, up to 1855, there have been granted for grain and grass harvesters, 111 

 patents ; for plows, 372 ; for straw-cutters, 153 ; for smut machines, 140 ; for winnowers, 

 163; and for thrashing machines, 378. It must be also remembered that, for every patent 

 granted, at least two applications have been refused. With the exception of stoves, more 

 patents have been issued for agricultural machines and implements than for any other class 

 of inventions. The great improvement in American agricultural implements has, however, 

 been comparatively recent; and thirty years have not elapsed since "a stalwart man could 

 shoulder and carry to his work every item employed to aid or reduce manual labor, except 

 the carts and an unwieldy, bungling harrow." 



At the trial of agricultural machines exhibited at the Great Paris Exhibition, the competi- 

 tion for reapers, mowers, and thrashers was, in reality, confined to the American inventions, 

 although some English and French machines were on the ground. The results of the French 

 Exhibition, in common with that of the great English one, place our reaping and mowing 

 machines, by general acknowledgment, far in advance of all others. The advantages of 

 these machines during the past season, with our superabundant crops, have been very 

 marked ; and they are to be found, not merely in the saving of grain and the cost of labor, 

 but in the fact of the prompt harvesting of every field as it successively ripens, without hur- 

 rying on the operation before the grain is matured, lest unfavorable weather or the scantiness 

 of help, should oblige the postponement of the cutting till much of the grain is loosened 

 from the ear and wasted in the field. 



At the trial of thrashing machines at the Paris Exhibition, the best machine exhibited, was 

 Pitt's American Thrasher. In the competition six men were set to thrashing with flails at 

 the same moment that the different machines commenced operations, and the following were 

 the results of half an hour's work : 



Six thrashers with flails 60 litres of wheat. 



Pitt's American Thrasher 740 " " 



Clayton's English Thrasher 410 " " 



Dunoir's French Thrasher 250 " " 



Pinet's Belgian Thrasher 150 " " 



