140 POEEST CULTURE AND 



more particularly in a young country, to which im- 

 migration streams mainly from a colder zone ; but 

 this display of increased capabilities, and of more 

 varied products of a mostly winterless land, may 

 entice the inexperienced to new operations without 

 guarding him against failures. I should even like to 

 see tables of calculations in this Museum, from which 

 could be learned the yield and value of any crop with- 

 in a defined acreage and from a soil chemically exam- 

 ined ; but from this I would regard inseparable a close 

 calculation of the costs under which each particular 

 crop can only be raised. Unfortunately, surprising 

 data are often furnished concerning the productive- 

 ness of new plants of culture ; but it is as frequently 

 forgotten that the large yield is, as a rule, dependent 

 on an expenditure commensurately large. 



Among the most powerful means for fostering phy- 

 tologic knowledge for local instructive purposes, that 

 of forming collections of the plants themselves remains 

 one of the foremost. No school of any great preten- 

 sion should be without a local collection of museum 

 plants, nor should any mechanics' institute be without 

 such. It serves as a means of reference most faith- 

 fully ; it need not be a source of expenditure ; it 

 might be gathered as an object of recreation ; it may 

 add even to the world's knowledge. Through the 

 transmission of numbered duplicate sets of plants to 

 my office the accurate naming may be secured.* From 

 such a normal collection in each district the inhabit- 



* Parcels of plants pressed and dried, and afterward closely packed, can 

 be inexpensively forwarded by post, and, by the excellence of tbe AUBtraliau 

 postal arrangements, can bo sent from distant stations of the interior, ftom 

 whence botanical specimens of any kind, for ascertaining the nature and 

 range of the species, are most acceptable ; while f yll ijiformatiau oo such 

 ;;^ater)al will at once be rendered, 



