THE t'AKMKKS' REGIbTEK. 



457 



previous aizriciiltor,)! survey of our whole stale | 

 heiiiir m iii<' hy some one or m^re oC their own j 

 bo(l\\ All iliest' (iijlies too iin^ requireti l" he 

 performed lU tiieir own expensf', hs if the ho- 1 

 nor alone of beini; a inembcr of the Virginia] 

 linard of ./grirultiire were quite sufficient coiu- 1 

 l>eusMii('>n ! Now ilihere lie :iry pimil ir •' system , 

 approved by observallon and r emulated by experi- j 

 f/icf." known to uny one ol' you, 1 will Irike it j 

 cifi a ppecial favor, it" you will publish it ; tor I 

 fuyseli have never heard ofany (eat, of leij;ie!lation 

 alall like ttiis act. 



Airain, admitiiuir ihni, the honor alone he all- 

 sii|]icient 111 P^iiisiy those who are niot^i ambitious 

 of sucii (lisiuiciion, I would respeciltjlly ask you 

 10 gay — if you decide upon accept ini!: this honor — 

 how the third enactment is to he executed'? Ii 

 runs thus. '' Aiitl be it luriher enacted, that it 

 shall be the duty of the said board to hold one 

 session in eacli year, at such lime and place as 

 may be fixed ufjon by ihe board, with the conseui 

 ol the executive." 



Hence ii seems that you are not at liberty even 

 to meet, nor to choose either the time nor place ol 

 nieetintr, without first askinir permission of the 

 j/ovefnorand his council, althoutrh any man ol 

 common sense would probably thuik that it would 

 puzzle not only the executive, hut the most sa- 

 pient of the framers of this extraordinary law to 

 point out how this execuiive consent is to be ob- 

 tained without a previous and unauthorized meet- 

 inir of the board — the said law havinix omiiied 

 to tix on uny time or phce for the first nieetincr. 

 Accortlini^ to my simple understandiiiir, this last 

 enacimcui completely nullifies the two which 

 precede it ; and unless it has isome menninor, en- 

 tirely (lifieient from any that I can discern, nmst 

 render this precious specimen of ^' the fostering 

 care of the state of llrginia over the " uarioHs 

 interests (flier agricultural community. ^^ a sul'jfct 

 ol universii and well-mcrued ridicule lhrou<_4ioiit 

 the United States. 



But CHii tiothinir be done to remi^dy the errors, 

 — may I not say the absurdiiies and injustii'e ol 

 this law as it now stands? Mi'^lii not itie mem 

 hers of the board, if willing to act provided the 

 law can be amended, take upon themselves the 

 responsibility of holding a meeting, say in the 

 city of Richmond, for the purpose of memorializ- 

 ing the next legislature 1 If you approve of this 

 proposal, I will lake the liberty to name Octotier 

 next as the time, and on the first day of the next 

 show and fair of the Henrico Agricultural and flor- 

 licultural Society. Such members as could not 

 a'tend might forward, by some friend, letters ex- 

 pressive of their wishes in regard to the course 

 they desired to be pursued, and thus no time 

 would be lost in attempting to accomplish an ob- 

 ject alike demanded by the crying wants of Vir- 

 ginia husbandry and the united voice of all its 

 best friends. One of your own Body. 



June 26th, 1841. 



P. S. Should the time and place of meeting 

 not suit the majority, how shall one more conve- 

 nient be fixed upon"? Four or five years have 

 already been lost, since a bill to establish a Board 

 of Agriculture was first proposed in our legisla- 

 ture, and surely that inexcusable and shameful 

 withholding lor such a long period of •' the foster- | 

 ing care of the state, for the various interests of, 

 the agricultural commimitu requiring'''' that care, ' 

 Vol. IX.-41 



aa the last legislature themselves have acknow- 

 ledged, ought to siuis'y the mosi invelera'e [irocras- 

 liiiiitor among us. Our law-makers liave been 

 (il my memory is correct) most diligen'ly en- 

 gaged, ever since 1798 — to the great amusement 

 of in OS t of the other states — m abortive attempts 

 to regulate the aHairs of the general government, 

 instead of laboring constantly, as their duty re- 

 (|uired, to promote tlie interests of their own state ; 

 and the fatal consequence has been, thnt poor 

 old Virginia bus been sinking in character and 

 relative influence ever since. Will the cultiva- 

 tors of the soil who certainly have the power to 

 remedy this crying evil, never apply it? All that 

 is necessary lor the purpose would be to choose 

 lor a \'ew years oniy, a set of legislators who 

 would attend to tht'ir own business, and cease to 

 occupy almost their whole time, with matters 

 over which they have no power whatever. 



[We think that the members of the Board of 

 AL'riculture cannot do better than to act upon the 

 sugfestion of our correspondent, and hold an in- 

 formal preliminary meeting. — Ed. F. K.] 



Baldwin's patknt stock mill or c()Kiy 



AND COB CRUSHER. 



The machine described in the firillowing article 

 (by the editor of the Kentucky Farmer,) is the 

 invention of a native and resident of Rockbridge 

 county, Virginia. We have heard it well spoken 

 of elsewhere. — Ed. F. R. 



Kroin tlie Kentuclty Farmer. 

 We beg attention to an advertisement in our 

 columns this week, of a machine to grind corn 

 and cob together. One of these machines has 

 been put in our hands liir trial. We attached it 

 to a small drum which gave it about half speed, 

 by which motion it ground up the grain and cob 

 in the most efffctuid manner, rendering them in- 

 to a meal rather finer than the hommony we use 

 on our tables. Not a single grain escapes being 

 thoroughly cracked and crushed. There is no 

 dispute in the country as to the economy of feed- 

 ing stock with ground food ; the only question is 

 as 10 the economy and efficiency of the means 

 used for grinding. Ol this machine, though we 

 have an instinctive distrust of such things with- 

 out trial, we have a favorable opinion, from the 

 small experiment already made with it. It re- 

 quires a one or two horse power to propel il, and 

 gr.nils out about ten bushels an hour. It is 

 made in the most durable manner of ihe best ma- 

 terials, all the most impoiiant pans being of cast 

 iron. As those desiring such a machine are in- 

 vited to examine this in operation, it is not deemed 

 necessary to make a detailed description of it. 

 It is not, however, at all after the tiishion of the 

 ordinary bark mill crushers. Its crushing power 

 consists of two pairs of fluted cylinders of harden- 

 ed cast iron, one pair of which roll upon a cast 

 iron fluted concave. It I'oes Ihe whole busitiesa 

 of crushing and grinding ihe grain and cob at one 

 operation, a great advantage over those machines 

 which only crack the grain and cob to be after- 

 wards ground by another operation. 



