332 
GENERAL AGENCY OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, ETC. 
streets, near the intersection of Broadway and the 
Fifth Avenue. The show of horses, especially 
stallions, was unusually fine. As to other things 
it was about an average. Sales to some extent 
were effected after the show was over, and we are 
pleased to see, that holding a fair for sales is be¬ 
coming more and more an important consideration 
at such places. If the American Institute would 
make its exhibitions one month earlier, the show 
and fair we are persuaded would be more extensive, 
and much more numerously attended. The official 
list of premiums w r e shall give hereafter. 
Lectures and speeches followed each other 
in succession, at various places and on different 
subjects, during the Eighteenth Exhibition of the 
American Institute, and we are glad to observe that 
an increasing interest is manifest in the public mind 
on the highly important matter of promoting the 
cause of agriculture, and the domestic industry of 
the country. 
GENERAL AGENCY™*OF THE AMERICAN 
AGRICULTURIST. 
It gives us pleasure to announce to our friends, 
and we are well assured that it will give equal 
pleasure to them to hear, that the old and familiar 
acquaintance of all readers of agricultural papers, 
Solon Robinson, Esq., of Indiana, has taken the 
general agency of our periodical, and leaves home 
the last part of this month upon a tour of observa¬ 
tion through Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, 
and so south as far as Alabama, along the Atlantic 
coast, to spread our work, and collect and report 
facts for the benefit of our readers. Mr. Robinson 
has been an occasional correspondent of the Agri¬ 
culturist ever since it was established, and for other 
papers for a dozen years past, some of which he 
has done much to build up and bring into notice. 
He has travelled over most of the United States, 
and possesses a large fund of information to com¬ 
municate, as well as a disposition to acquire more. 
We are persuaded that Mr. Robinson’s reconnais¬ 
sance will be particularly agreeable at the south ; 
for upon the subject of which southerners are 
somewhat jealous of interference, we can assure 
them that they will be pleased to communicate with 
him. Our journal was the first that started at the 
north, with the avowed intention of giving a due 
share of its pages to the interests and agriculture o*f 
the south; and we do not hesitate to say, that through 
the kind favors and contributions of southern 
planters, it has been one of the best exponents o-f 
their agriculture ever published ; and this department 
we mean to increase rather than diminish. 
Mr. Robinson is to act as agent for the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist, and receive subscriptions or or¬ 
ders for bound volumes, as well as any other of the 
numerous works published or sold by Messrs. 
Saxton & Miles. He will also receive orders for 
any agricultural implements which we keep for 
sale in our recently established warehouse; and 
for the celebrated improved plows or other imple¬ 
ments manufactured by Messrs. Ruggles, Nourse 
& Mason, of Boston, and Worcester, Massachu¬ 
setts; and also everything in the garden and nursery 
line of Messrs. Parsons & Co., of Flushing, New 
Work. 
For money paid to Mr. Robinson, for anything 
mentioned above, we guarantee the same shall be 
properly applied. His representations may be en¬ 
tirely depended upon, and all orders given through 
him will be faithfully and promptly executed. Our 
exchanges at the South and West will confer 
a favor upon us as well as their readers, by notic 
ing this arrangement; and we bespeak for Mr 
Robinson, such attentions upon his travels as will 
tend to make them agreeable, and further the objects 
of his tour. It will be his study to make himself 
useful wherever he goes, and he may be emphati¬ 
cally styled the Agricultural Missionary of the land 
Look to the leaks in your buildings. —For 
want of a trifling attention to the covering of build¬ 
ings, considerable loss is not unfrequently sustain¬ 
ed. A single board gets loose, or a shingle is out 
of place, and forthwith the water is admitted, and 
runs into a mortice, and soon the tenon is rotted off 
and the mortice spoiled. Thus, two sticks of timber, 
in all other respects good, are rendered comparatively 
worthless by the want of a little caution, or from the 
neglect of replacing one shingle. Air holes which 
admit a stream of cold air directly on to an animal, 
are very injurious to them. Nothing will tend more 
certainly to disease than this. There is an old Span¬ 
ish proverb which is true to the letter: 
“ If cold wind reach you through a hole, 
Go make your will and mind your soul.” 
The physical effect is the same whether applied to 
man or beast. The dripping of water through a 
leaky roof is equally prejudicial to an animal. Much 
is lost and nothing gained by these petty neglects. 
Italian Grape Vines.— Imported by C. Ed¬ 
wards Lester, U. S. Consul at Genoa. —Early the 
past summer, Mr. Lester arrived in this country on 
a visit, bringing with him a quantity of very valua¬ 
ble Italian grape vines, which were offered for sale. 
Many of them were sold at auction, but for a price 
so low that he stopped the sale, finding he would 
not get his money back expended in the importa¬ 
tion, and the balance he caused to be set out in 
different parts of the country. A large proportion 
of these lived, particularly those under the care of 
Mr. Lester’s Italian vine-dresser, and there are now 
about one thousand, in a fine vigorous state, which 
will be taken up and sent to us as fast as they are 
ordered. They are for sale at $1,50 per single vine, 
or $15 per dozen. The proper way to keep these 
vines till spring, will be to put them in a warm 
cellar, and then cover the roots with earth. If set 
out in the following spring, they will most proba¬ 
bly bring fruit the first year. A large number of 
gentlemen in this country who have eaten this grape 
in Italy, seem to esteem it superior to any we now 
have in the United States cultivated in the open air. 
The Osage Orange, for Hedges. —This splendid 
shrub seems but little known for hedges, yet many 
persons have long believed it admirably adapted for 
this purpose, and enclosed their premises with it. 
Near Philadelphia there are hedges of it impenetrable 
to man or beast. It is armed with formidable spines, 
and effectually excludes fruit pilferers and gunners. 
Cattle will not browse on its leaves, or tender shoots ; 
and it is entirely free from the diseases which have 
made such havoc with the thorn. 
