AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
227 
agricultural department, the management of it 
has been placed in first-rate hands, and at the 
importance of our national agriculture, the skill 
of our farmers, the interests of the agricultural 
student, will all be fully represented and at¬ 
tended to is plain from this imperfect sketch of 
the plan of operations; and also, though that 
is not yet apparent to the visitor at Sydenham, 
from the progress which we arc informed has 
been already made towards its completion. 
WHAT IS GOVERNMENT DOING FOR 
AGRICULTURE 1 
Nothing, would not be far from a correct an¬ 
swer to the above question. Our Congressmen 
have time enough and money enough to devote 
to extending the area of our country, but can 
do nothing to aid in developing the resources, 
and improving the fruitfulness of the territory 
already in possession. The following article 
from the April number of Be Bow's Review , 
gives us a general view of what has been done, 
and what is now doing in an agricultural county, 
which has a large sum of money in its treasury. 
Let every one read it. The writer says: 
“ Gen. Washington, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madi¬ 
son, Mr. Monroe, and Mr. Adams, for a period 
of thirty-six years consecutively, all recom¬ 
mended an improvement of agriculture, or na¬ 
tional schools; and the same principles and 
powers are involved in each of their recom¬ 
mendations, and no one of the subsequent Pres¬ 
idents advising against it; Mr. Taylor and Mr. 
Fillmore strongly recommending, and their 
secretaries; the resolutions of legislatures, pe 
titions of agricultural societies and of the peo¬ 
ple, and the interest of eighteen millions of our 
inhabitants, yea, of the whole, I ask, if all this 
combined is entirely to any consideration ? 
It has received but very little. But I am 
told there is a patent office, and the farmers 
are abundantly enlightened with the crumbs 
that fall from its table. The patent office, un¬ 
til 1831, during General Jackson’s administra¬ 
tion, when he called Mr. Ellsworth to it, was a 
burlesque, and is now, upon farming, compared 
with the w r ants of this great nation. Mr. Ells¬ 
worth was a practical farmer; but he had all to 
do, and nothing to do with. He was the first 
in that office to give any attention to agricul¬ 
ture. But the first appx-opriation for that ob¬ 
ject was in 1839, $1000, for collecting agricul¬ 
tural statistics; in 1842, $1000; in 1843, 
$2000; in 1844, $2000; in 1845, $3000; in 
1847, $3000 ; in 1848, $3500; in 1849, $3500 ; 
in 1850, $4500; in 1851, $5500;—total, $29,000 
in seventy-five years. The cost of printing is 
not included, and cannot be ascertained, as the 
report of the Commissioner was all published 
ig one volume until the last two years. What 
cap this small pittance do for this great nation ? 
Scarcely enough in any one year to defray the 
ordinary expences of correspondence. 
The Fund is to be distributed by the Com¬ 
missioner of Patents, who is not selected for his 
knowledge of agriculture, (whose main business 
is of a different character, and more than he can 
do,) and.may or may not be acquainted with it. 
The business must therefore be done by an un¬ 
accredited agent. Where is our agricultural 
department? Pent up in the cellar of the pa¬ 
tent office, and cannot be found at midday with¬ 
out a candle; and when found, a single clerk 
struggling to get up the report. When it is up 
and out, there are but four hundred volumes of 
each Congressional district of one hundred 
thousand population, and that a reading peo¬ 
ple ; and there is more call for this document 
than all others of a public character, and fast 
gaining in reputation from editors over the Un¬ 
ion, and the public generally, inadequate as 
it is. 
There is no country where the mind is so in¬ 
quisitive and information so generally desired 
and possessed as irKAmerica. Travel over the 
whole world and return, and the truth is seen 
and felt more palpably. To us the masses of 
the world are looking for improvement, physi¬ 
cally and morally, and for it they seek us in 
thousands daily. In the United States there 
are but about thirty agricultural periodicals 
published, and there are five hundred thousand 
copies taken and read by the people—a mere 
drop to the ocean. There are agricultural jour¬ 
nals in the State of New-York that have six 
times greater circulation than any single paper 
of the kind in Europe. This only shows how 
great the thirst we ought to assist in gratifying. 
In America, there is not an agricultural school 
aided or patronized by the government; and, in 
fact, it may be said, there is none at all. Some 
are just beginning to struggle for life, but the 
faint, feeble feeling of the general government 
infuses itself into every part of its great family, 
and paralyzes the whole body. There is not 
what may be regarded as a text-book in any 
branch of agriculture or rural economy in 
America. 
Compare what America as a nation has done, 
with what has been done by other nations. I 
can but glance at it. Russia has in all sixty- 
eight schools and colleges. She has an agricul¬ 
tural institution with forty college buildings, 
occupying three thousand acres of land, and at¬ 
tended by several thousand students. The Ag¬ 
ricultural society of St. Petersburg was estab¬ 
lished by Queen Catharine. There are under 
the patronage of the French government sev¬ 
enty school-farms, besides five first-class col¬ 
leges, in which professors are employed to lec¬ 
ture on botany, zoology, chemistry, agriculture, 
and the treatment of diseases in cattle; on the 
culture of woods, forests, etc. These are sup¬ 
ported throughout the country. National es¬ 
tablishments for the improvement of breeds of 
stock, and colleges for the education of veteri¬ 
nary surgeons, and investigating the uses of all 
discoveries contemplated for agricultural im¬ 
provement. The government expends in three 
veterinary schools, a year, for instruction, 754, 
200 francs; for instruction in agriculture, 
2,731,468 francs; for encouragement in agricul¬ 
ture, 700,000 francs; for improvement in the 
breeds of horses and science connected with it 
alone, 1,776,400 francs. The requirements for 
admission into these veterinary schools are as 
follows : The applicant must be not less than 
seventeen years of age, and not over twenty-five, 
and have the following qualifications: to be able 
to forge a horse or ox-shoe after two heatings; 
pass an examination in the French language, 
arithmetic, and geography, and after four years’ 
study, is permitted to practise veterinary sur¬ 
gery, and receive a diploma. In Belgium, great 
attention is paid to the subject. There are a 
hundred agricultural schools or colleges estab¬ 
lished by the government—-a high school of 
veterinary surgery. The science of agriculture 
is the most fashionable in the kingdom. They 
have their palaces furnished more or less with 
rare specimens of the products of the land, and 
are farmed like a garden. These facts I know, 
having traveled over considerable part of that 
country. In Saxony, they have five schools; 
in Bavaria, thirty-five; in Wurtemberg, seven; 
in Austria, thirty-three; in Prussia, thirty-two; 
in Italy, two; in Scotland, two; in Ireland six¬ 
ty-three. The one at Glessnevin, near Dublin, 
I visited. It now consists of one hundred and 
twenty-eight acres of good land, and conven¬ 
ient buildings, and are about to add to their 
farm, and increase their buildings, so as to ac¬ 
commodate one hundred or more students. 
With the teacher, Mr. Donaghy, I became ac¬ 
quainted. He is an intelligent, practical man. 
With him I viewed the farm, and their farming 
and buildings, etc., and it is carried on very 
successfully. These schools are doing more for 
Ireland than any other attention the govern¬ 
ment is giving them. They have colleges and 
agricultural schools in England sustained by 
the government—some four or five with large 
farms attached to them—where all the sciences 
connected with the general business are taught 
with great perfection, and millions of money 
each year invested in the general science of ag¬ 
riculture by the nation. It is an investment, 
and not an expenditure. Other countries are 
engaged in the same business, but I cannot go 
further into detail. Sufficient is said to draw a 
parallel between their views and ours. Abroad, 
they invest millions each year in a country not 
larger than an average of our States. Here, in 
all our country, for seventy-five years, for the 
general object we have expended $29,000. 
* * * The number of agricultural societies 
in this country are thus given : New-York has 
a State society, and from seventy to eighty 
county societies. Pennsylvania has from twelve 
to twenty county societies, and many grouped 
together. Ohio has a State society, and seventy 
county societies. Massachusetts has twelve so¬ 
cieties, and in many of these societies several 
counties together. Michigan has twenty county 
societies. Indiana, a State society. Kentucky, 
five county societies. Georgia, a State society, 
and fifteen county societies. South-Carolina 
has six county societies. Virginia has a State 
society, and three county societies. Maryland, a 
State society, and four county societies. Ver¬ 
mont, a State society, and four county societies, 
and was the first State to ask us to establish a 
National Board. New-Hampshire, a State soci¬ 
ety, and eight or nine county societies, and also 
asked Congress to establish a Board. Connec¬ 
ticut, a number of county societies. Rhode 
Island has also passed resolutions asking Con¬ 
gress to establish a Board. Maine has six 
county societies. Iowa, a State society, and six 
or eight county societies. Wisconsin, a State 
society. Illinois, three county societies. Ten¬ 
nessee has some county societies, and two years 
since, unanimously recommended a National 
Board. Florida has passed a resolution for a 
National Board. Louisiana, in 1848, passed a 
law' for a Bureau. 
AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF NEBRASKA. 
Tue Cleveland, Herald contains an interesting 
letter from the Nebraska region, written by Will¬ 
iam Walker, an intelligent and worthy half- 
breed, and the chief of the Wyandot Indians, 
from which we make the following extract: 
As far as I have been able to make observa¬ 
tion on cultivated lands, I have no hesitation in 
affirming that there can be no country found to 
surpass it in the production of corn, wheat and 
oats. Clover, I think, will not do well. The 
soil is too loose, and the clover freezes out in 
the winter, and what is left gets the finishing 
stroke during the autumnal droughts so common 
in this country. That this country is well ad¬ 
apted to fruit raising I can speak with confi¬ 
dence, as I have been doing something in that 
line myself, and take much interest in that de¬ 
partment of horticulture. I think I never ate as 
luscious peaches in my life as my neighbors and 
I have raised. It is to be regretted, however, 
that in some seasons the peach crop has met 
with total failure. But apples and other fruits 
seldom fail. On the alluvial lands we have 
pawpaws, &c., that will eclipse anything in the 
western world. 
With regard to mercantile and mechanical 
pursuits, it would be difficult at present to tell. 
This will depend upon the population in the 
various prominent points, and when the current 
of trade has settled down to the permanent 
maximum. The location of the Mississippi and 
Pacific Railroad through the central route will 
soon develop the business points. But upon 
the organization of the territory, and, moreover, 
upon the extinguishing of the title of the 
Shawnee and Delaware Indians to their lands 
upon the Kansas river, (as they own both sides,) 
a great opening will here present itself to the 
enterprising and business men of all pursuits. 
It is navigable for 200 miles up the “Republi¬ 
can Fork,” except in a low state of water, which 
occurs generally in the fall. The country upon 
this stream is considered the best portions of 
the territory, the land generally being well 
adapted to agricultural purposes, and being 
