NEW PUBLICATIONS. 273 



man who knows him only through his works ; and we said no word 

 which could be considered, even by implication, as disparaging his 

 address. Why then are we made to appear before the public as at 

 variance with him ? This question can best be answered by the 

 writer who has chosen to place us in this position. We do not believe 

 that Mr. Bancroft considered himself personally alluded to, if he ever 

 gave himself the trouble to read our review. We regret sincerely 

 that such a charge should so causelessly be made against us, and 

 we regret as sincerely the necessity which is laid upon us to answer 

 the call to expose the errors of the volumes published under the 

 auspices of the State Agricultural Society ; and in doing this, we 

 may do even more than we merely hinted at before. 



1. What are the "Transactions" of a Society? We had always 

 supposed that in this word were included simply the doings of such 

 a body ; its business ; reports of its meetings ; papers read before 

 it, relating to the objects of its labors ; correspondence, etc. But 

 what have we in the " Transactions of the New-York State Agri- 

 cultural Society" ? Not only these, and others that might be con- 

 sidered as the property of the Society ; but we find also in these 

 volumes papers, which, we will presume to say the Society as such 

 never knew the existence of till they found them here. If we were 

 surprised at them, how much more must the members of the "New- 

 York State Agricultural Society" have been surprised when they 

 they saw the " Transactions " assuming the form of a volume of 

 six hundred and seventy-one pages. Let no one sneer at this, and 

 call it picking for straws. We are aware that some one, in imitation 

 of " Senex," may ask us for our instances of such papers in these 

 volumes ; and we are ready to produce our instances : but whilst 

 we select them, let not the authors believe that we are finding fault 

 with them. We are only saying that their articles had mistaken their 

 place, or some one for them, when they got into the volumes before 

 us. To the point, then, since it must be so ; and we will not go 

 back farther than the year 1843, inasmuch as the volumes previous 

 to that year are so modestly small as to tempt us but lightly to the 

 search. We take then the two last years' "Transactions," 1843 

 and 1844, which have been politely furnished us by the Secretary. 

 One fact, however, must here be stated, before we produce these 

 instances of what ought not to be here, and that fact is this : From 

 these volumes have been rejected many papers which did form a 



