164 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



be a valuable book. The New York Transactions 

 are essential to every considerable American li- 

 brary, and are fast becoming so to those of Eu- 

 rope. We are informed by the Secretary, that 

 during the year an application was made by the 

 Russian government for a set for the Imperial Li- 

 brary, and that constant demands are made for 

 them by the governments of Europe, And he has 

 the most gratifying assurance that they serve not 

 only to make our country more generally known 

 and appreciated, but are the means of introduc- 

 ing abroad our most valuable farm implements to 

 such an extent as to make this trade a very im- 

 portant item to our manufacturers. 



The first report in the volume before us, is that 

 of a committee of five, 



ON TUE DEATH OF MEMBERS, 



in which a brief sketch is given of three of the 

 former officers of the Society, all of whom died in 

 December, 1859. We think favorably of this 

 feature of the work. 



ANNUAL MEETING AND ADDRESSES. 



The election of officers and the other mere 

 business of the society occupy but a page or two 

 of the one hundred which we designate by the 

 above title, and which include addresses by Hon. 

 John A. Dix, and by A. B. Conger, the retiring 

 President. Among the subjects discussed was 

 the question, "Are the crops in New York de- 

 creasing ?" Statements to that effect, so current 

 in agricultural publications, were indignantly de- 

 nied, and the testimony of farmers present was, 

 that "We are improving in our agriculture. We 

 are raising more food than ever before." The 

 valuable reports of the Committees on Farms and 

 on Dairies were made at this meeting. Sheep- 

 power for churning was recommended as far pref- 

 erable to dog, water, or woman-power. The wri- 

 ter says he knew of one sheep being used for 

 churning until he was eighteen years old, and 

 that one sheep will churn the butter from twenty 

 cows. The powers may be made on the endless 

 chain principle, or the circular wheel. 



"A sheep will churn two or three times a day, 

 even in warm weather, without inconvenience ; is 

 much less expensive to keep than a dog, as its 

 food is mostly grass ; and it will produce more 

 wool than the ordinary sheep of the flock. Select 

 those of the coarse wool variety, as they will 

 stand the heat well, and are inclined to be mild 

 in disposition. They soon learn to drink butter- 

 milk and grow large and fleshy. Procure a chain 

 fifteen or twenty feet long to fasten them ; change 

 their place to feed every day ; and when the 

 churning is over in the fall, let them go with the 

 flock, and they are no more trouble until wanted 

 in the spring." 



TILE draining. 



Premiums are awarded to T. C. Maxweli- for 

 a little over fifty miles of drain, at a cost of 



$5000, on nearly two hundred acres, and to W. 

 T. & E. Smith, for fifty-five miles, at a cost of 

 $100 per mile, or 31 cents per rod. 



Extracts from Reports of Committees on award 

 of premiums, and from replies to queries of the 

 Secretary in relation to the wheat midge, and to 

 statistics of crops, are interesting and valuable. 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



After "Some Glimpses of Agriculture in Great 

 Britain," by Mr. Tucker, of the Country Gentle- 

 man, we have a complete history of the Agricul- 

 tural College, at Ovid, Seneca county. The char- 

 ter of this college was granted in 1853. Is it not 

 strange that the friends of agricultural education 

 in the Empire State should be obliged to read the 

 following paragraph in the "Annual Report of 

 the Trustees," January 10, 1860. 



"To this institution the eyes of multitudes are 

 turned, from every State of the Union. It seems 

 scarcely possible, when so near the attainment of 

 our object, that the needful amount for complet- 

 ing the work should be wanting, in a State where 

 so much wealth abounds." 



Vl^NTER premiums. 



Agricultural societies, we believe, are very of- 

 ten winter-killed. They undertake to den-up, 

 like bears which do nothing but suck their paws 

 all winter, and the result is that, unlike the bears, 

 such societies never wake up at all. The New 

 York Society makes no attempt to hibernate, in 

 this sleepy manner. It is wide awake in the win- 

 ter season, and busy, too, as well as during Fair 

 times. We have already noticed its Winter 

 Meeting. In another connection we find a list of 

 Winter Premiums awarded, to the amount of 

 some seven hundred dollars, mostly on such grain 

 crops, &c., as could not be properly presented so 

 early in the season as the usual time of holding 

 the Autumnal Fair, 



Abundant, however, as are the labors of this 

 society, the volume before us contains many val- 

 uable papers besides those which are, strictly 

 speaking, a part of its transactions. Among 

 these we will barely name an elaborate article 

 from the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Soci- 

 ety of England, entitled "Experiments with Dif- 

 ferent Manures on Permanent Meadow Lands," 

 "The Plains of Long Island," &c., &c. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



The society employs Dr. Fitch to investigate 

 the habits and to report on the best methods of 

 destroying injurious insects, and of avoiding their 

 depredations on the crops of farmers, in this "land 

 of insects," as the Doctor thinks America has 

 been truthfully denominated. And he adds that 

 "the losses which we sustain from these pests, 

 immeasurably surpass everything of the kind to 

 which they are subject in Europe." His Sixth 



