MOW TO MAKE POTATO-YEAST —PROFESSOR NORTON^ LETTERS.—NO. 6. 
287 
war has had its masters and proficients from its first 
professors, Cain and Nimrod, to the military chief¬ 
tains of the present day. Gifted minds they have 
been too, adepts in the art, skilful and apt to teach ; 
and so successful have been their efforts that they 
have monopolized nearly all the glory of every 
passing age. Surely then, agriculture, which occu¬ 
pies so many hands, pays so large a portion of the 
nation’s taxes, confers so large benefits, that has 
been so much neglected, and is yet so weak and 
puny while artillery is so rampant and strong, 
surely agriculture must command some distinguish¬ 
ed patronage and support from a government self- 
dubbed “ the most enlightened on earth.” But 
softly, gentle readers, you are getting in advance of 
our national government; the history of the pre¬ 
sent day records no such policy as this. Turn over 
the folios of our national statutes, and you will find 
the record of no such law. Consult the files of 
Executive State Papers, and since the days of the 
illustrious Washington, you will hardly find the 
subject alluded to. Peruse the speeches of our le¬ 
gislative Solons, and you will discover they have 
wasted no time on this subject. Not one penny of 
the $30,000,000 of our national revenue annually 
collected from the pockets of our farmers, has ever 
been appropriated to the endowment of an Agricul¬ 
tural College, or the promotion of the agricultural 
education of our youth during the whole 50 years 
our present national government has had an exist¬ 
ence. Even demagogues and pot-house politicians 
do not deem it necessary to talk to “ Bunkum” in 
this view; they wisely scorn to consider it even 
good “ gammon.” Other subjects are abundant, 
that will much better repay the expenditure of bad 
breath and windy nothings; the theme of agricul¬ 
ture and attention to its progress or advancement is 
not popular enough even with its own millions of 
self-considered, intelligent delvers, to be deemed 
worthy a passing thought. How much less then 
should it receive the munificent appropriations so 
unhesitatingly accorded to a military academy, or 
even one ship of war out of a hundred ! Yet farmers 
support the army and navy, nor do they ask their 
representatives when they return from a session’s 
carousal, what they have done for the interest of 
agriculture ? Continue, most sagacious deputies, to 
lay on the burdens upon the backs of your sapient 
constituency—the benefits are reserved for a more 
discreet generation. Jacques. 
We have hesitated in inserting the preceding 
home thrusts at our farmers from our melancholy 
friend. On reflection, however, we think they need 
some strong provocatives to action for their own in¬ 
terests, and therefore conclude to lay it within 
their reach. 
How to make Potato-Yeast. —Boil in their skins, 
three large potatoes; drain off the water, and let 
them remain in the pot until they have done steam¬ 
ing. Then peel and beat them light, adding a table 
spoonful of clean brown sugar, as much wheat flour, 
a teaspoonful of salt, and a teacupfull of good 
rising; beat this mixture until quite smooth, and 
then pour in three pints of boiling water; set it in 
a warm place, and in a short time it will be fit for 
use, having risen to a fine white froth. 
PROFESSOR NORTON’S LETTERS.—No. 6. 
A few days since I visited the Landbouw Kabi- 
net, in this city, a species of Agricultural Museum, 
where are collected the implements actually em¬ 
ployed in the various provinces of the Netherlands 
in agricultural operations. Here are a few imple- 
. ments from England and other countries, but far the 
greater part are Dutch. I took a few notes at the 
time, and will endeavor to describe some of the 
things which seemed to me most worthy of atten¬ 
tion. 
One feature in this museum was certainly very 
excellent; that is, all of the implements used in any 
particular branch of husbandry were kept strictly 
together, so that at one glance I saw everything 
connected with any subject of peculiar interest. The 
first two rooms contained only implements engaged 
in the actual preparation of the land for the recep¬ 
tion of the seed, such as plows, cultivators, harrows, 
rollers, &c. The plows were nearly all of most 
singular and awkward construction. The Hohen- 
sheimshe, improved from Germany, was the only 
one which resembled the best English or American 
plows. The mold-boards were almost invariably 
of wood, and sometimes not even covered with 
sheet-iron. Each province has its own peculiar 
model; one, I think, that was from Friesland, had 
the mold-board rounded outwards, and very badly 
rounded too. I am at a loss to conceive how any 
man in his senses could construct such a machine. 
The Zealand sand-plow had a broad flange running 
along the lower edge of the mold-board, intended I 
suppose to prevent it from going too deep in a light 
sandy soil. Another Zealand plow had a cast-iron 
point and mold-board in one piece, fixed in the 
middle of the beam; directly behind it was another, 
but set about six inches lower, so as to go in the 
bottom of the furrow made by the first. For a large 
improved plow of this description a very handsome 
premium has lately been obtained. Such an im¬ 
plement might do well in very light soils, but in a 
stiff one, a very great force would be required to 
work it. The beam of one plow was raised and 
depressed by a sort of pulley. There was only one 
double-mold-board plow intended to throw the fur¬ 
rows all the same way. In this case, the plowman 
would have to stop at the end of each furrow and 
go forward to turn the wooden board into its place. 
There was an interval of an inch or two between 
the mold-board, and the point. The subsoil-plows 
were English, also the cultivators. Some machines 
from Germany to be employed in the potato culture 
were wonderfully clumsy, being tied together by 
ropes. Each province has its own shape for a spade ; 
the edges of some being rounded outwards, some 
inwards, some are pointed and others are half 
wood, the lower part only being covered with iron. 
There is a particular kind of spade employed in 
cutting peat from the bogs. The harrows were 
very good, though not equal to our best, with the 
teeth in nearly all of them sloping forward. 
The best sowing-machines were English. There 
was a very good hand-tin, for sowing seeds in 
drills. The body was like a large inverted tin-can¬ 
ister, with a long spout leading from the lower end, 
on the extremity of which fitted six or eight little 
cones, one over the other, having orifices gradually 
increasing in size so that at last they would pass 
