AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 297 



orary member of this society. Tlie descendants of the Giraffe 

 flourish at the museum, notwithstanding the great difference of 

 climate between Paris and the burning sands of Africa. These 

 animals thrive here with no more care than we have bestowed 

 upon the merino sheep this century past. 



Philosophers and chemists are daily adding conquests in their 

 fields of action, and great ones ! Agriculture owes it to herself 

 to .carry out the grand ideas which some of our great men long 

 ago suggested — Buffon, Daubenton and others. 



In 1766, Daubenton first began his labors in the Museum of 

 Natural History, by acclimating the Merino sheep — reports of 

 which he made to the Academy of Science. The experimental 

 Menagerie was not founded until 1793, five years after the death 

 of Euffon. We have no trace of the acclimation of Mammiferse 

 except the animals we now possess, and whose conquest by man 

 reaches back to the most remote ages, and we have not the slightest 

 indication of the time of its beginning. 



With abundance of cattle comes abundance of milk, cheese, 

 meat, manure that brings abundance of wheat, oil and wine cheap 

 to all men. We now want fewer splendid houses in our cities 

 and more full barns in the country — less luxury and more gen- 

 eral comfort — less velvet in parlors and more hay in the stacks — 

 great attention to roads, .especially the small ones which reach the 

 farmers. Too much cannot be done in the system of internal com- 

 munications — equalizing values and vastly increasing production. 



The following statistics of England are deemed reliable : 



Agriculture, (viz) cultivated lands, _ _ ] 



Agricultural implements, grain, &c., \ $10,860,000,00p 



Horses, cattle, sheep, &c., &c., J ■ — 



The whole property of every sort, $22,235,000,000 



The gold of California at fifty millions a year, would pay Eng- 

 land for her agriculture in 200 years ! 



SUGAR SORGHUM. 



The Sorgho sucre attracts much attention on account of its sugar 

 and as a fodder. Lindley in his Vegetable Kingdom — Edition, 

 London, 1846, says; "Among the Graminacese are ranked Eleu- 

 yine Coracana or Natchnee of the coast of Coromandel ; the JYagla 



