556 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



nient, you can state the result of your examination 

 in the Register, for the information and gratifica- 

 tion of irs numerous readers, who may be pleased 

 to know the result. 



NATHANIEL BIRWELL. 



[The package referred to above was lost or destroyed 

 by accident, while in the charge of the gentleman who 

 would otherwise have delivered it. If it had reached 

 us, every car,e would have been used to insure a fair 

 and complete examination, and a correct report of the 

 facts ascertained. As it is, we have only to present, 

 in the foregoing letter, the additional and highly respec- 

 table authority which exists for the appearance favora- 

 ble to that side of the question to which our individual 

 opinion remains opposed.] 



For the Fanners' Register. 



THE PROPOSED AGRICULTURAL CONVEN- 

 TION. 



If the plan of an agricultural convention which 

 has been proposed in the Farmers' Regester, 

 should be approved and carried into effect, it will 

 be well for every individual who may propose to 

 attend it, previously to take into consideration, 

 and to mature his own views in relation to each 

 of the several subjects which he may deem pro- 

 per for discussion, and the action of the body. 

 Without much of such previous and separate con- 

 sideration, there may be a numerous meeting, 

 and containing the most intelligent and able mem- 

 bers of the agricultural interest — and yet nothing 

 be done, because nothing had been previously di- 

 gested, and that the meeting would not continue 

 long enough for mature deliberation to be both 

 commenced and finished. The adoption of undigest- 

 ed opinions, and hasty and injudicious action, 

 will do more harm than good to the cause of ag- 

 riculture. Upon this ground, I hope it will not be 

 deemed too presumptuous in an unknown indi- 

 vidual to mention the subjects which appear to 

 him deserving of the attention of an agricultural 

 convention. As I merely design to offer hints, 

 for the consideration of others of more influence 

 and talent, I shall not argue in favor of the abso- 

 lute or relative importance of any subject. It will 

 be for others to receive and improve on such sug- 

 gestions—or to reject them, if unworthy of notice. 



In addition to the establishment of an agricultu- 

 ral professorship, as recommended by the proposer 

 of the convention, I would call to the recollection 

 of your readers the several other institutions re- 

 commended to the fostering care of the Govern- 

 ment of Virginia, in several Nos. of your 1st and 

 2nd volume. These were (as well asl remember, 

 not having all the Nos. now at hand,) agricultu- 

 ral societies upon a proper plan— schools for in- 

 struction in practical agriculture — a model firm — 

 and an experimental farm. All these are impor- 

 tant objects, in comparison with which, the sug- 

 gestions which are submitted in the following que- 

 ries may seem scarcely worthy of notice — never- 

 theless, I will state whatever occurs to my mind, 

 however trivial may be the benefit which its adop- 

 tion would promise. 



Would not agricultural knowledge be greatly 

 advanced by the general adoption of agricultural 

 class-books for common schools, instead of some 

 of the usual northern compilations, from which no 



useful information is derived? If very generally 

 used, such books on different branches of agricul- 

 ture and domestic economy might be sold at as 

 low prices as any whatever, and would serve as 

 well for boys to learn to read, and at the same time 

 fix on thousands of youthful minds directions for 

 their future labors, which in most cases in no other 

 way would be read. Even if such a substitution 

 of school books produced no important benefit, it 

 would not cost an additional cent's expense, and 

 could do no possible harm. 



Would it not be advisable for the Convention to 

 leave to different committees Ihe task of consider- 

 ing and reporting on, at a future time, all the sub- 

 jects affecting agricultural interests on which no 

 immediate action can be had? The reports ot 

 such committees would have no obligation, except 

 the moral lorce which truth and reason always ought 

 to have — and they might engage the minds and 

 pens of some of our ablest men, and bring forth 

 varied, extensive, and most important views, as to 

 the interests of agriculture, aud the means for pro- 

 moting them. 



A SUPPORTER OF THE IN- 

 TERESTS OF AGRICULTURE. 



[There has been a strange and blamable remissness 

 in giving notice to the public of the meeting of the 

 Agricultural Convention, to be held in Richmond, on 

 the second Monday in January — and it is feared that 

 many zealous and able friends to agriculture, will there- 

 by be kept ignorant of the time, until it is too late. 

 Our views in support of this important measure were 

 stated at sufficient length, when the proposition was 

 first published in a former No. of this journal. There 

 has never before occurred an opportunity by which 

 more could be done for the agricultural and general in- 

 terests of Virginia — and there certainly never was 

 a time when they more needed the zealous and 

 efficient support of every true Virginian. 



It is very lately that we have learned that delegates 

 to the Convention have been chosen by the Agricultural 

 Societies of Albemarle and of Fredericksburg. Those 

 chosen by the Agricultural Society of Buckingham 

 were announced in our last No. — and as that is the only 

 official notice that has reached us, perhaps appoint- 

 ments have been made by other societies, of which we 

 have not yet heard. But the delegates from societies 

 will form a very small part of the convention. Every 

 one having an interest in agriculture has been invited 

 to attend — and it is hoped that a numerous assemblage 

 will be there, ready and zealous for action. An inter- 

 est in the welfare of agriculture is the only requisite 

 for admittance — and an earnest desire to promote agri- 

 cultural improvement will alone render any member 

 useful, and his presence and support valuable.] 



FURTHER NOTICE OF THE PRAIRTE SOTLS OF 

 ARK ANSA, WITH SPECIMENS AND THEIR 

 LOCALITIES PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED. 



Hempstead county, /Irk. Ter. ? 

 Oct. 24, 1835. $ 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Agreeably to your request, I send you speci- 

 mens of our prairie and woodland soils. 

 A section made near the point of a ridge,grown 



