166 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
Hen-Manure- 
More than one correspondent has lately asked: 
How shall I prepare hen-manure for use, what 
crops does it most benefit, and how and when 
should it be applied 1 To which we reply : Have 
on hand a lot of old barrels, and shovel the hen- 
manure into them, mixing it as you go, with twice 
its bulk of loam, muck or sand. It is an excel¬ 
lent plan to scatter fresh dirt or plaster under the 
hen roosts every few days. This compost thor¬ 
oughly mixed together, may be applied by the sin¬ 
gle handful to every hill of corn. Forty bushels 
of the mixture will thoroughly manure an acre. 
It may be applied not only to corn, but also to cu¬ 
cumbers, melons, squashes, grape-vines, and in¬ 
deed to everything growing in a garden. It is 
quite as active a fertilizer as Peruvian guano. 
---*—c»- 
Poultry Raising is Profitable—II. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
In a former number the question is asked “ Will 
Poultry Pay 1” Here is an answer: A few fowls 
well taken care of will pay as your “ Connecticut 
Yankee,” has shown by figures. My account for 
last year ran as follows : Dr. 
To cash for 7 Fowls (Jan. 1857).$1.75 
To cash for Feed during year.$6 86 
Whole cost.$8.01 
Cr. 
To Jan. 1858. By 67 dozen Eggs.$12.56 
Market value of 34 chickens used. 8.50 
Market value of 33 Fowls on hand. 8.25 
Total.$29 31 
Deduct cost. 8.61 
Leaves a net Profit of..$20 70 
My old hens stopped laying about the first of 
November, and shortly after I killed four, leaving 
only two old hens on hand. On the 8th of De¬ 
cember, my early Spring chickens commenced 
laying, as was proved by my gathering from 3 to 
6 eggs a day through the month of December. 
My 34 fowls eaten have thus paid me near 30 
cents per pound for the privilege of eating them. 
In this city (one of the great grain markets), wet 
grain and all kinds of feed can be had very cheap, 
which reduces the expense. 
Oswego, N. Y. Your City Fowl. 
Ashes and Plaster for Corn- 
We only remind farmers, of what most of them 
know already, that if they wish to help forward 
their corn crop, they would do well to apply, at 
the first and second hoeings, a handful for each 
hill, of plaster and ashes. Mix them at the rate 
of one part plaster to five of ashes. The effect 
of this application will bp most conspicuous on 
dry, sandy soils ; but it will not be invisible any¬ 
where. Don’t forget to give your Chinese Sugar 
Cane the benefit of this treatment. 
-<♦-«- ■ naB -^> Dii -- 
A Carrot Hoe. 
Dr. Gill, of Dutchess Co., N, Y., writes : As 
weeding carrots is the great drawback to their 
cultivation, I’ll give you a description of a hoe I 
had made which nearly does away with the hand- 
weeding. I removed the blade of a common small 
sized push, or “ scuffle hoe” and cut out of an old 
saw a blade turned up the side. This turned up 
piece acts like a coulter, and you can run it within 
hif o' - an inch of the plants withiut disturbing 
them Use it as soon as you can see the plants, 
apd your hand weeding is almost nothing. Try it 1 
Agricultural Schools—Morrill’s Land Bill. 
Though frequently and strongly urged to do so, 
we have not seen our way clear to give the warm 
support of this Journal to the Bill before Congress, 
introduced by the Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Vt, 
which proposes to donate portions of the public 
lands to the several States and Territories, for the 
support of Agricultural Colleges. This Bill has 
already passed the House of Representatives, and 
is now before the Senate for consideration, and 
may pass that house before this reaches the read¬ 
er. That such a scheme might and should be 
beneficial to agriculture, we have not the slight¬ 
est doubt, but would it be, has been the question 
with us. If we are guided by what has transpired 
hitherto, in the attempts made by the General 
Government to aid the cause of agricultural im¬ 
provement, we shall have little hopes of any ben¬ 
efit to be derived from the passage of such a Bill. 
All this, however, is based upon the idea that if 
the lands were not thus donated to agricultural 
colleges, they would be sold for the benefit of the 
general treasury, and thus lessen the direct or 
rather indirect tax upon the people. But as the 
lands are now going, one million of acres to this 
enterprize (private speculation), two millions to 
that one, five millions to another, and so on, 
we confess ourselves, at last, to be decidedly in 
favor of the proposed donation in favor of agri¬ 
cultural schools. Some good may come out 
of it, we will hope much ; but still we w'arn 
farmers themselves that in case the lands are 
granted, unless they take the matter in their own 
hands at home, the proceeds will mostly go to 
build asylums for broken down politicians, or to the 
beneficiaries of political parties, and that the, so 
called, agricultural colleges to be erected, will be 
nurseries of scientific nonsense, and promotive of 
more injury than benefit to real improvement in 
practical agriculture. 
But without saying more now on this topic, we 
present below some extracts from a minority re¬ 
port of the Congressional Committee on Public 
Lands, for the purpose of giving a synopsis of 
what has already been done in reference to agri¬ 
cultural schools both in this country and in Europe. 
The minority report was drawn up and signed by 
the Hon. D. S. Walbridge, of Mich., and concurred 
in by Hon. Henry Bennett, of N. Y. The length 
of these extracts and our crowded columns make it 
necessary to use small type: 
* * * About one-lialf of the entire free male population 
ofthe United States over fifteen years of age, according 
to the census of 1850, are directly engaged in the cultiva¬ 
tion ofthe earth, and a large proportion ofthe balance are 
indirectly so employed; yet this large part of our popula¬ 
tion are notoriously less instructed in those branches of 
scientific knowledge directly connected with the proper 
and economical managment oftheir own pursuits than any 
other class of citizens in their peculiar occupations. 
The undersigned is unwilling tobelieve that the cultiva¬ 
tors of the soil are as a class, naturally less intelligent or 
less able with the same facilities to acquiie knowledge 
than others, and of necessity must attribute their lack of 
scientific and practical information to the want of the op¬ 
portunity of obtaining it. 
The establishment of schools and colleges for the in¬ 
struction of youth in scientific and practical agriculture, 
although of comparatively recent origin, and as yet but 
little more than commenced in this coun ry, is not an ex¬ 
periment. Such schools and other institutions of a high 
grade Have been established by most of the European gov¬ 
ernments, and their utility and importance ful.y vindi¬ 
cated. 
In Russia the subject of agricultural education is com¬ 
mitted to the charge ofthe minister of public domains, who 
through his subordinate officers has the supervision of the 
wholematter. Eight colleges of ahigh order are estab¬ 
lished in the Empire, possessing 28,220 acres of land, an 
endowment of$37,000 each, and an annual support from 
the government of $11,250 each. In 1849, they contained 
an aggregate of 706 students; more than fifty minor schools 
and model farms are established in various special schools 
fot instruction in some special branch of agriculture, as 
flax culture, &c., &c„ 
The government encourages by liberal appropriations ol 
the public funds the Imperial Independent Society ofRu 
ral Economy, which is charged with the duty of publishing 
reports, periodicals, and other works on agricultural sub 
j'ects. This society also sends agents over the empire and 
abroad in search of scientific and practical information, to 
be again disseminated by the society through its publica¬ 
tions. 
In Prussia, agricultural education is perhaps most thor 
oughly incorporated with their public administration. 
Prussia has five agricultural colleges of ahigh ordei, 
twenty-eight elementary colleges of a lower grade, and 
fifty-seven [special schools for instruction in particular 
branches of culture. There are seventy-two model anc. 
experimental farms in the kingdom. In these schools and 
colleges are taught the various systems of husbandry, 
farm management, book-keeping, cultivation of arable and 
grass lands, horticultural and agricultural technology, me 
chanics, natural philosophy, botany, mineralogy, a know¬ 
ledge of soils, agricultural chemistry, veterinary surgery, 
breeding, raising and management of animals, and in fact 
every branch of education necessary to the'inlelligent ag¬ 
riculturist. 
These efforts, made by the governments of Russia and 
Prussia, in behalf of agricultural education are claimed 
by those governments, and admitted by all who have wit¬ 
nessed their operations, to be a great success. 
In France, in 1848, agriculture was embraced as a sys¬ 
tem by a general law comprehending the whole Empire. 
Provision was made by that law for the establishment of 
agricultural schools in each of the departments. A higher 
order of colleges was established in districts, each contain¬ 
ing several departments, and the National Agronomic In¬ 
stitute was established at Versailles. The whole system 
is subordinated to the appropriate ministry. The number 
of such colleges and schools in France now exceeds one 
hundred, and the beneficial results of agricultural know¬ 
ledge obtained at them is said to be entirely satisfactory. 
In all, or nearly all the German States, more or less 
encouragement is given by the governments to the 
establishment of agricultural schools, and the gene¬ 
ral dissemination of scientific and practical knowledge 
among the people, with, it is believed, satisfactory re¬ 
sults. 
Spain, Portugal, and Turkey, it is believed ignore the 
subject quite as much as the government of the United 
States. 
Agricultural schools are established in various parts of 
England and Scotland, but are principally supported by 
private enterprise and charges for tuition ; but in Ireland 
the government of Great Britain contributes liberally to 
the support of such schools, and its effect is seen in the 
increased productions of the island, and the comparative 
content and improved intelligence of the people. 
These efforts on the part of the governments of the Old 
World, to improve and elevate the condition and intelli¬ 
gence of the toiling millions, stimulated by the pervading 
spirit of the age, have turned the attention of the people 
of our own country to the subject of a more comprehen¬ 
sive and perfect system of agricultural education, and in 
a few instances the State legislatures, beingnearest to, and 
first partaking of the popular impulse, have made partial 
provision for carrying out their wishes. 
The State of Michigan has a constitutional provision 
requiring her legislature to establish an agricultural col¬ 
lege, in obedience to which the legislature of that 
State, in 1855, made an appropriation of fifly-six thousand 
dollars for that object, with which a tract of land of near 
seven hundred acres was purchased, and buildings erect¬ 
ed. In 1857, the legislature made a further appropriation 
of forty thousand dollars for the use of the institution, and 
in May following, the first class <of students was received. 
The college is under the supervision of the State Board of 
Education, and the faculty consists of a president and five 
professors. At present there are one hundred students in 
attendance. The design of the institution is to receive 
the student direct from the common schools of the State, 
and give such a thorough English and scientific education 
as will render him an intelligent citizen, an accomplished 
farmer, and qualified to discharge any duty l.is country 
may require at his hands. Mathematics, agricultural 
chemistry, the natural sciences, the application of science 
to the industrial arts, veterinary practice, horticulture, 
and indeed all such studies as are usually taught in such 
institutions, and can be embraced in a four years’course, 
will be pursued. Labor is inseparably associated with 
study, and physical is combined with mental education in 
the institution, and it is one of its objects to make the cul¬ 
tivation of the soil instructive, varied, interesting, and at¬ 
tractive, as well as profitable. The trial has been suc¬ 
cessful, and the expectations of its founders, the faculty, 
and students have been realised as far as so limited a test 
will allow. 
The Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania, was inert!- 
porated in 1855. The design is similar to that of the Agrl- 
