THE GENESEE FABMER. 



Ido- interest. Mr. Feanois P. Blair has a well improved farm, as that of Mr. Rives, proprietor of 

 the Washinoton Globe, soon will be. We must, however, take another occasion to describe the 

 practice of the best farmers near the Capital of the United States. Suffice it now to say that a 

 spirit of industry and improvement has been awakened, which promises the most auspicious results. 

 Vineyards and extensive orchards are being planted, and the promising commencement of a new 

 order of thint^s is everywhere visible. The Metropolitan Mechanics' Institute will hold its first fair, 

 commencing on the 24th February and extending beyond the 4th of March, in the hall of the east 

 wing of the Patent Office, which is 270 feet long and 70 feet in width. The building for the steam 

 power is already up. 



If the farmers and mechanics of the District are true to their own fame, and true to the great 

 classes to which they respectively belong, they will soon lay the foundation of an Industrial Uni- 

 versity worthy of a self governing people — worthy of the most advanced stage of human progress 

 — and worthy of the brilliant future of this republican empire. The United States Patent Office is 

 now a school of applied sciences, and not a bad one. The Smithsonian Institution offers to the 

 student many, and some peculiar, advantages. All the essential elements of a National University 

 abound in Washington and the District. Let 100 acres be highly cultivated by students, and they 

 may board themselves comfortably at a cost of 75 cts. a week. For such, we have 109 acres near 

 the city, on which are a good stone quarry, three fine and durable springs of water, and oak and 

 chestnut timber enough to cut from 900 to 1000 cords of wood. To overcome the expense of board 

 and bring learning and science near to, or upon the farm, and into the workshop, are objects 

 which the writer has studied and cherished from his childhood. Knowledge of a comman-ding 

 character, and honest manual labor, are soon to be united in this country. The hope of the world 

 demands the perfect union of the best physical with the best mental training or education of youth. 

 . From the sweat of his face man can never be wholly exempt; por is it possible for universal suf- 

 frage to govern wisely in ages to come, without that intellectual culture which science alone confers. 

 King Numbers holds his court at the federal metropolis, and there, of all places should public 

 opinion be in perfect harmony with the highest interests of the farmer and the mechanic. 

 These interests involve something more than dollars and cents, and we can never prostitute either 

 our pen or journal to any mere mercenary considerations. Agriculture is a means, not an end ; and 

 it would be well for a person to understand for what good purpose he is living. Not to know this, 

 is to be ignorant indeed. Are we here to scratch tlie earth a few years, consume its fruits, waste 

 its elements of fertility in cities and villages, and then leave it that another and more numerous 

 generation may do likewise? This is a narrow and unsatisfactory view of humanity. Our capa- 

 bilities scorn such grovelling companionship with the brute; our rising aspirations seek, and 

 instinctively claim, a nobler destiny ; our duty exacts not impossibilities, but an earnest and cease- 

 less effort to leave the world better than we found it. 



BRITISH AND AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



(Continued from Page lY.) 



B. I have several times been on the eve of coming up to have a little more talk about the old 

 country, but it has been so remarkably mild for the season, hitherto, that I have been uncommonly 

 busy fixing fences, and making and hanging new gates. There is always plenty of work on a farm, 

 if it is kept in anytliing like decent order, and such a winter as this gives one a good opportunity 

 of putting tliirigs straight and lessening the amount of work necessary in the spring and busy sea- 

 son. I suppose this is some sucli a winter as they have in England. 



A. Up to this time we have indeed liad comparatively no winter, and it is a mercy we have not, 

 for such was the scarcity of fodder in many places, last yeai-, that if we have a very severe winter it 

 would be next to impossible for the farmei-s to winter their cattle. 1 have let my slieep run out into 

 the meadow, Avhere tliey find some little gi-ass, sweetened by the frost, which they eat and do first 

 rate. This is very similar to wliat last winter was in England. Jt did not freeze hard enougli for 

 the water to beai-, more than three times all the while I was there, and tlien it did not last but a 

 few days. The English appear to be remarkably fond of skating, and make the best use of what 

 -1 K. little falls to their sliare. I recollect one morning while in London, when the water would bear — j r 



