No. 216.] 331 



" Silk culturists are desired to continue their answers to question* 

 submitted at any former Convention by letter if they cannot attend, 

 that the public may have the benefit of any new facts or important 

 experiments of the last year. 



" Facts are wanted in relation to the Potato Disease, to enable the 

 Institute to answer inquiries made by the Royal Central Society of 

 Agriculture of France, and other Societies, whose indefatigable in- 

 vestigations are still directed to the causes and the remedy for this 

 appalling disease." 



The first business of the meeting was the appointment of a Com- 

 mittee to take the names and residences of those Delegates present, 

 and on motion of Col. Clark, the same committee was deputed to 

 nominate Officers. The gentlemen appointed were Messrs. Wake- 

 man, Pierson and Jackson. 



The Committee then withdrew to deliberate. 



Meantime Prof. Meigs read a translation, by himself, of a portion 

 of a Brazilian work treating of Agriculture and of the establishment 

 in that region of an Institution very similar to the American Insti- 

 tute. Mr. M. prefaced the reading with a few remarks expressive 

 of bis true sense of the true aims and the progress of Agricultural 

 Science. He thought the paper he was about to read contained the 

 soundest philosophy, expressed in the best manner, relative to the 

 principles of Agriculture. The Institution is indebted to M. D'- 

 Aguiar, the Consul of Brazil, for the city of New-Yoik, for the copy 

 of Auxililador da Industria JYacional — published at Rio Janeiro 

 in June, 1846, from which the following is extracted: 



[Translations.^ 

 ** WHAT IS AGRICULTURE ?" 



" It is the sublime art of cultivating the earth and causing it to 

 produce all the plants, grains and fruits necessary for the use of manj 

 and there is with it, also, the multiplication and preservation of all 

 the principal domestic animals. It is the primary and most useful 

 of all the Arts. It is the condition of things most comfortable to 

 Nature and to reason, the art of deriving from the bosom of the 

 earth our aliment and clothing. What is more noble — what more 



