40 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Wanted! An Agricultural School. 
No single question has been proposed to us so 
frequently of late, as : “ where shall I find a good 
Agricultural school, combining the practical with 
the scientific, to which 1 can send my sons'!” 
This question has come from various quarters, 
bat chiefly from residents of this city, and its 
vicinity, and from gentlemen in Virginia and ad¬ 
jacent South Middle States There are perhaps, 
fifty or a hundred—perhaps five times as many 
(there ought to be) who have been engaged in 
business pursuits in New York city alone, who 
are now desirous of sending their sons into 
the country, where they may develop their mus¬ 
cles by out-door labor, learn something at least by 
daily observation of both the practice and theory 
of the greatest and noblest industrial pursuit, and 
at the same time devote more or less attention to 
me development of the mind bv the daily study 
of the usual branches of education. 
There is an increasing interest in this matter now. 
Perhaps the “ financial events” of the past few 
months may have had some influence in this re¬ 
spect Perhaps our citizens are waking up to a 
sense of the fact, that our city reared boys are 
deficient in that muscular vigor which is required 
to fit them to compete with the annual influx of 
country bred boys, who are, after all, the class that 
constitute the real “ bone and muscle” of the 
commercial circles in this and other cities. We 
have no better evidence of the increased inter¬ 
est in rural matters than in the fact, that we 
have on our books as subscribers, nearly 3000 mer¬ 
chants in this city alone, with a large number in 
nearly all the leading cities in the Union. The 
increase in this respect has been ten-fold within 
three years. 
To the inquiries for an Agricultural School of 
the right character, we have been unable to give 
a satisfactory answer. Various attempts have 
oeen made to get up State Agricultural Schools 
and Colleges, out with two or three exceptions 
these have oeen so mixed up with politics that 
little good has resulted, and we have little hopes 
in that, direction. If the secret history of the 
past efforts in this State (N. Y.) could be written, 
we fear, as farmers of the Empire State, we 
should blush at the exposition. 
Michigan has succeeded better than any other 
State thus far, and has now in operation a good 
State Agricultural College, comparatively free, so 
far as we have learned, from the contaminating in¬ 
fluences of political intrigue and favoritism. 
Pennsylvania will follow suit by the opening of 
heT Agricultural College during this year. 
But aside from these two institutions—which 
are, unfortunately for the rest of us, neither of 
them open to pupils beyond their respective States 
-we can scarcely point, to another institution where 
all the advantages sought after by numerous in¬ 
quirers, can be realized, viz- extensive daily prac¬ 
tice in the field, combined with constant attention 
to the usual branches of school education 
We offer these observations, not,in a fault finding 
mood, but for the special purpose of calling out in¬ 
formation from different sources, in regard to the 
actual condition and facilities of the various pro¬ 
fessedly agricultural schools in the country. We 
«hail or happy to publish anything from un¬ 
prejudiced. uninterested sources of a reliable 
character —if it. comes brief and to the point. 
iv kw cse for chloroform. It is reported that, 
in Taunton, Mass., several fat hogs have been 
stolen by firsi administering chloroform, and then 
taking inem from the pens, without so much as 
rammg a squeal. 
Agricultural Humbug at Washington. 
A CALL UPON CONGRESS FOR INVESTIGATION. 
We have long considered, and more than once 
referred to the Agricultural Department of the 
Patent Office at Washington, as a humbug—an 
imposition upon the farmers of this country. 
First—the whole business is tacked on to another 
department with which it has no legitimate con¬ 
nection. Second, as stated in our last, of some 
$75,000,000 expended by our Government annu¬ 
ally, but. $75,000—or only one dollar in every thou¬ 
sand —is devoted to promoting the interests of 
agriculture, even nominally. 
But our chief cause of complaint is in the way 
the business is managed. We will here repeat a 
paragraph from our last No., page 6. In review¬ 
ing the Patent. Office Report for 1856, we said : 
“ Op the whole, as the upshot of a year’s work 
“ in the Agricultural Bureau of the Patent Office, 
“ we cannot say much for the hook. Half-a-doz- 
“ en agricultural periodicals that we can name, 
“ give us an annual fund of information, far ex- 
“ ceeding this in value, and reach ten times the 
“ number of readers that the hook will do, distrib- 
“ uted as it is. The annual distribution of seeds 
“ by the department, through the members of Con- 
“ gress, by way of the Post-Offices, with few and 
“ far between exceptions, we consider an arrant 
“ humbug. We have had scores of packages, in 
“ nine cases out of ten only to try and condemn 
“ them, as far as anything valuable was concerned. 
“ This practice ought to be discontinued instanter. 
“ It lumbers the mails and frets the people who 
“get them, with disappointment. If anything 
“ really new and important could be obtained by 
“ the Patent Office, in that line, it would be well 
“ to distribute it among our farmers; but the 
“ purchase of seeds, common and unclean—as many 
“ a re — if it be made a jobbing affair, for the benefit 
“ of a few favorites, instead of a public object, the 
“ less of it the better." 
The last sentence, in italics, has a deeper sig¬ 
nificance than most of our readers may have sup¬ 
posed. That impure and untrue seeds have been 
sent out we presume no one will deny. 
That this business is made “ a jobbing affair for 
the benefit of a few favorites ,” may not be so easily 
demonstrated simply from the fact tlwt the 
guilty officials, with the control of the Government 
machinery, have the facilities for “ covering their 
tracks" so effectually as to baffle investigation by 
private individuals. 
Hints have from time to time reached us re¬ 
specting the way seeds have been purchased 
for the Department, but not in such a definite 
shape as to warrant the responsibility of a per¬ 
sonal investigation. These have referred, 
among other things, to Bills of seeds upon which 
a discount is said to have been allowed to relatives 
or friends of the government officials making the 
purchases. 
But, passing these for the present, we ask at¬ 
tention to the proceedings of the U. S. Agricultu¬ 
ral Society at Washington, Jan. 13th, 14th, and 
15th. Mr. Wray there showed up some recent 
acts of a government officer, in an attempt lo 
interfere with his private business. (We wish Mr. 
Wray had gone back further, and related 
some of his former experiences, when in con¬ 
sultation with government officials about the sale 
of seeds, the securing of a patent lor his sugar 
process, &.c We have an inkling that if sum¬ 
moned by the proper authorities as a witness, he 
could make some revelations not all creditable to 
our Agrcult.ural Department ) 
Our present object is to call upon our Repre¬ 
sentatives in Congress, who have, or should have,a 
common sympathy with the farming interests ol 
the country, to look into this matter Let there be. 
an intelligent committee (not a political one) es¬ 
pecially appointed to examine the past transac¬ 
tions of the government Agricultural gentlemen, 
to whose kind care this great interest has been in¬ 
trusted. Let the committee investigate the 
sources of the seeds distributed in times past, the 
prices paid for them ; and, further, enquire i< 
they have been direetly or indirectly “ toHe.il” 
for the benefit of relatives of government officers. 
One such case at least has been communicated 
to us. For its truihfulness we cannot vouch, birt 
we can give names and statements. 
Let this committee further inquire What fas been 
the ultimate disposition of the seeds—whether 
they have been equitably distributed, or whether 
some members of Congress have not sent off by 
mail, hundreds of parcels of costly seeds,(or those- 
costing much) which have never found their way-' 
into the soil. Are there any instances ftfrown.'. 
where new varieties of grain have gone site- 
the stables of favorite horses of the said mt®- 
bers 1* 
Let them inquire further, what becomes of the ’ 
Patent Office Reports, printed ostensibly for dis¬ 
tribution among farmers. We can point them tc 
two places in this city where they are sold for; 
37^ cents each, and we have to-day bought 
them thus, with the offer of plenty more, and by 
the hundred, too, “ as soon as they could be sent 
for.” 
We hold direct communication with more than 
thirty thousand of the leading farmers of the coun¬ 
try, and indirectly with many more; and on be¬ 
half of them and others, we respectfully call upon 
our Representatives not to pass the matter idly by. 
We can assure them, in the most positive manner, 
that there is a deep and growing feeling among 
the mass of farmers, that the management 
of the Government Department of Agriculture is 
little short of an imposition, and that they willnaal 
long remain silent. 
Our government can and should do much for the: 
promotion of agricultural improvement This in ¬ 
terest is second to none. It should not be, so fan 
as government is concerned, left entirely to the 
tender mercies of one or two inefficient persons,, 
with power to prostitute the good intentions of ouu 
representatives to their own selfish ends. 
We know, among our Representatives at Wash¬ 
ington, more than one noble-hearted man, who is 
alive to, and deeply interested in our common 
agriculture ; and we can but hope they may be led 
to take some present a tion in regard to the sub¬ 
ject We s ? have more to say on this topic. 
* A case of this kind was related to us a short time 
since, hut we have lost our informant’s address. If this 
meets his eye, will he please communicate with us. Ariv 
other facts beaiingon the topics of this article we shall be 
glad to have brought forth. 
What Weather! » 
Is the almost universal exclamation. Here it 
is, January 25, and neither snow nor ice—or but 
a very little yet seen hereabouts. It is worthy to 
be recorded, that in 1858, up to January 25, green 
grass has hardly disappeared from the fields, and 
there has not yet been frost enough in the ground 
to prevent plowing, trenching, and most kinds of 
outdoor work, from being carried on with about as 
much facility as in November or April. Perhaps 
Winter has gone into a nap for a year ; but we 
suspect he will yet wake up and growl a little, 
when we least desire his presence. So it will 
not he amiss to plow a few fields, and spade the 
garden, if we still have opportunity, and thus be 
partly prepared for a late Spring, should we have 
one. 
