264 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE, 



crops against depredation, instead of requiring every man to keep up his stock 

 or make him answerable for double the amount of the injury it may do to his 

 neighbors, costs this country many, many hundred millions of dollars — more 

 than all the buildings and other improvements together. Let any man having 

 500 acres of land, calculate the first outlay and the interest on the cost of his 

 timber or stone fences, and the view of the result will prompt him to ask the 

 question, Is there no remedy for an evil so enormous? Agricultural Societies 

 would do much better were they to unite their influence and devote themselves 

 to inquiries after remedies for such grievances, than in giving premiums for 

 match horses and fat hogs. But to them nothing is so startling as a proposition 

 to inquire into remedies for political and moral evils that work injuriously to the 

 interests they represent. In the New-York State Agricultural Society it was even 

 made a question Vv^hether it v/as within their province to entertain any discus- 

 sion or to express any opinion as to the policy of legislative encouragement to 

 direct, express agricultural education ! 



Farmers willingly submit to be taxed, and pay large sums annually for edu- 

 cating the privileged few in the science of war, in Army and Navy schools, but 

 they seem to cower and tremble when it is proposed that they should have the 

 presumption to demand an equal or proportionate amount for instruction in the 

 great, all-sustaining art of Agriculture ! Not even agricultural journals, with a 

 very few exceptions, are seen to stand up for and insist upon it. 



You will see grave Senators adjourn their legislative sittings, as at Annapolis, 

 to go and see midshipmen fire cannon, at the expense of their constituents, and yet 

 dare not open the inquiry. How much does this cost, and might we not in like man- 

 ner have the mechanical principles of plows and threshing-machines exemplified 

 and explained at the expense of the Government, at a Normal school, with far 

 more benefit to the real interests of Society ? — When will farmers wake up to a 

 sense of what is due to common sense and to their own rights ? 



Botany as a Branch of Agricoi-turai.- Education. — How Ions 

 •win apply to any American College ? 



before the folio wins 



Examination Paper used in University 

 College, London, for the Senior Class of 

 Botany: Midsummer, 1847. — 1. What is pro- 

 toplasm ? and what its chemical dift'erences 

 from the cell-wall ? 2. Describe briefly the 

 structure, station and supposed origin of 

 staixh, and the use of it in the vegetable 

 economy. 3. What are hairs ? 4. Can hairs 

 be used advantageously in distinguishing 

 plants from each other ? Give examples. 5. 

 Describe the nature of the fibro-vascular tis- 

 sue of a leaf, its origin, its position, and its 

 use. G. What is the use of leaves to plants ? 

 7. How does it happen that some plants, al- 

 though incapable of forming leaves, neverthe- 

 less perform their functions perfectly in their 

 absence ? 8. What is albumen ? How does 

 it originate ? What physiological purpose 



does it serve ? 9. What is vitellus ? and in 

 what natural orders docs it occur ? 10. What 

 are the most usual properties of leguminous 

 plants 1 11. How would you distinguish 

 Marants from Gingerworts ? 12. State brief- 

 ly the botanical difference between Myrtle- 

 blooms, Citronworts, Tutsans, and Rueworts, 

 all of which have dotted leaves ; and mention 

 the u.wal properties of each. 13. Suppose 

 that allspice (Eugenia ncris and Pimento) 

 were mixed with pepper (Piper nigrum,) 

 and the two v\'ere roughly pounded together, 

 by what mark would you expect to detect 

 the mixture ? 14. Let pepper and Larkspur- 

 seed be poimded together, could you then de- 

 tect the mixture ? and how ? 



John Lindlcy, Ph. D.,F. R. S., Professor. . 



Interesting Chemical Fact. — Water saturated with one-third of its weight of commor> 

 valt will still dissolve sugar; and if completely charged with carbonic acid, it will dissolve 

 ircn. 



(542) 



