782 [Assembly 



Mr. Wakeman remarked that we have on our table also, present- 

 ed by those respectable publishers ; S. S. &, W. Wood of this city, 

 Davis' Text Book of Agriculture, in which Mr. Davis in the intro- 

 duction, recommends the teaching of that great practical art, in our 

 common schools and colleges. That scholars go to their homes, and 

 may there practice the lessons they have learned. So that the State 

 in this way becomes one great experimental farm! Not so. We 

 have not, as is well known, teachers in our schools and colleges, 

 competent to that end. W^e are not yet prepared to begin to teach 

 it effectually. And the want of intercr^urse among farmers generally, 

 prevents all circulation of knowledge. The view given in the 

 Scotch Agricultural Journals, of the condition of the common farm- 

 ers there, is striking : 



" He, more than the denizens of a town, is exposed to a species 

 of mental torpor, the result of the monotony of his employment. 

 From want of mental exercise, the whole nervous system becomes re- 

 laxed, and hence we find a premature dotage taking hold of the 

 Hind, between his 50th and 60th years. He becomes listless, stupid 

 and unimpressionable. Life has ceased to have an interest for him, 

 and he vegetates merely. Statistics show that the members of the 

 learned professions, notwithstanding the sedentary life which they are 

 compelled to lead, are as long lived as the rest of the community; 

 and v;'e know from many examples, that literary men in particular, 

 not unfrequently carry into extreme old age all the freshness and 

 buoyancy of youth ! 5*0 much for education. 



Mr. Downing of Astoria — in a note to Mr. Wakeman, states an 

 experiment on the position of manures in the soil, tried by himself 

 One piece of ground he ploughed eight or nine inches deep, and then 

 spread manure all along in the furrows as he ploughed. He plough- 

 ed an adjoining piece of ground on which he had first spread the 

 manure, then harrowed it thoroughly in — both pieces of ground were 

 otherwise worked alike, the former yielding full twenty per cent, 

 more than the latter. The corn on the first piece did not at first ap- 

 pear to do as well as on the last, but in the end it increased and ex- 

 celled the last. Mr. Downing thinks that the gases of manures will 

 not descend, but do ascend. 



The chairmari now called up the regular subjects: draining and 

 Irrigation. 



Judge Van Wyck. Drainage is very little used in our country — 

 but in some parts of Europe, owing to their humid climate, it is im- 



