20 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



apparatus as is used for potatoes, the consumption of which, in the manufacture of starch, 

 &c., has hitherto been enormous. The process for extracting the bitter taste from these 

 nuts is simply a series of washings in weak alkaline water. 



Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory, who has done so much for the promotion 

 of the interests of navigation, has recently proposed, in a -communication to the American 

 Farmer, that a national system of meteorological observations, for the exclusive benefit of 

 the agricultural interest of the country, be established. He claims that, by an arrangement 

 simple and inexpensive, results altogether as important to landsmen may be obtained, as 

 have been yielded by the system of research pursued under his directions at sea. In his 

 communication, Lieutenant M. says 



" The germination of the seed and the growth of the plant are but the display of a me- 

 teorological force, the expression of atmospherical laws, which, when rightly understood, 

 cannot fail to confer upon agriculture and the well-being of States benefits as signal as the 

 study of the movements of the same grand machine at sea has conferred upon commerce and 

 navigation. I appeal, therefore, to the farmers, and all who are interested in the matter on 

 shore, to follow the example of the sailors, and put their shoulders to the wheel, and help 

 along the undertaking. Man by nature is a meteorologist, and everybody, whether ashore 

 or afloat, has, even if he has not the intelligence to perceive it, an interest in it." 



It is to be hoped that the vast amount of talk and "resolving" every year expended in 

 favor of establishing a department of the General Government for the supervision and en- 

 couragement of the agricultural interests of the country, may ultimately find a termination 

 in some plan as practical as that proposed by Lieutenant Maury. Thus far, government has 

 done comparatively little or nothing for this leading branch of American industry. The two 

 hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand dollars annually expended for printing and cir- 

 culating the Patent Office reports would, if applied in a more practical manner, produce 

 results of the greatest value. A portion of the Patent Office claims the dignity of an Agri- 

 cultural Bureau, and under the last commissioner has done something to merit the title. In 

 proportion, however, to its means, its results have been scanty ; the reports are generally a 

 mass of unsystematized matter, containing a few things good, some pernicious, and much 

 that is worthless the good being like a grain of wheat in a bushel of chaff. The Horticul- 

 turist states that many of the seeds " sent out year after year, as novelties, are bundles of 

 perfect trash," and plants growing in the United States are said to have been imported at 

 expense from foreign countries. 



One of the most reliable methods of facilitating and insuring agricultural progress, is by 

 the dissemination and circulation of good books and journals. In this respect, especial 

 credit must be awarded to Messrs. C. M. Saxton & Co., of New York, who have made agri- 

 cultural literature a speciality. The number of books pertaining to agriculture and rural 

 economy now published by this house is upwards of sixty, the majority of which are of a 

 highly practical and scientific character. 



We shall, also, do no more than justice, in taking advantage of our position as a reviewer, 

 to award a large measure of praise to the Scientific American for its early and accurate reports 

 of the progress of improvement in respect to agricultural machines and implements. This 

 paper is the only journal in the country that describes in full American agricultural inventions. 



The contributions made to agricultural literature during the past year have been numerous 

 and important. An essay has been published by Baron Liebig, with the especial view of re- 

 futing the positions in respect to manures which Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, of England, 

 assert to have been established by their experiments. This, the friends of the great chemist 

 claim, has been done most triumphantly. 



A journal, devoted to veterinary science, the only publication of the kind in the United 

 States, has recently been established in Boston, under the auspices of Dr. George H. Dadd. 



We have thus briefly noted some of the memorable incidents and points of progress in the 

 agricultural history of the year 1854-5. We think we err not in saying that marked im- 

 provement has been made, and that the promise for future years is most flattering. 



