AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
89 
TEA IN MISSISSIPPI. 
Dr. A Berry sends 11 s, from Raymond, 
Miss., a sample of tea, with the seeds of the 
plant. It has the taste and smell of black 
tea, though he informs us that the leaves 
were not gathered until frost had touched 
them. The plant is an annual, and grows 
with very little care. A lady is of the opin¬ 
ion that the article, properly cured, is fully 
equal to the best black tea. We fear she is 
a little enthusiastic in her opinion, but trust 
it may prove to be worthy of this high com¬ 
mendation. We shall give a few of the seeds 
a chance in our garden, and see if it will 
grow in our climate. It will be a great day 
for our country when it can raise its own 
tea. This enterprize we believe has been 
started by Junius Smith, Esq., of South 
Carolina, with the genuine tea plants from 
China. He was confident of success for a 
while, but we have heard nothing of his 
operations the past year. 
A paper which has just come to hand in¬ 
forms us that Mr. Smith, while he lived, 
showed the possibility of growing the Chi¬ 
nese teas in the south, without actually 
reaching any results that are likely to be of 
permanent advantage to the country. His 
plantation remains, but no worthy successor 
has risen to enter into his labors, and carry 
out his views. 
Whether the annual sent us, or any other, 
will prove an acceptible substitute for the 
teas of commerce, is a problem that can be 
best tried at the south. We shall be glad to 
report any experiments with this article. 
NEW LONDON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
This Society held its Annual meeting on 
the last Wednesday in March. Mr. Clift, of 
Stonington, was chosen President; Erastus 
Williams, of Norwich, Oliver Johnson, of 
Franklin, E. B. Brown, of Stonington, Hon. 
T. W. Williams, of New London, P. A. Gil¬ 
lette of Colchester, B. D. Johnson of East 
Lyme, Vice Presidents ; Dr. Daniel F. Gul¬ 
liver, of Norwich Town, Corresponding and 
Recording Secretary ; J. P. Barstow, of 
Norwich, Treasurer. 
At a subsequent meeting of the Board of 
Trustees, it was decided to have a fair next 
fall, and a premium list of some six hundred 
dollars was made out. For the purpose of 
disseminating knowledge upon the great ob¬ 
jects the Society labors to promote, it was 
voted to distribute through the premium list 
seventy-five dollars’ worth of the American 
Agriculturist , in annual subscriptions, and 
twenty-five of the Horticulturist. A good ag 
ricultural or horticultural paper for a year, 
was thought to be worth more to the com¬ 
petitor and to the Society, than the same value 
distributed in money. 
We commend the example of the New 
London County Society to the considera¬ 
tion of other similar associations. A pre¬ 
mium paid in money is soon expended and 
forgotten ; but if invested by the Society in a 
reliable weekly agricultural paper, its influ¬ 
ence extends through the year; and con¬ 
stitutes a living premium more highly ptized 
than money or unread copies of books, and 
“ Annual Reports.” The reception of a 
paper fifty-two times ayear without expense, 
not only frequently recalls the memory of the 
means by which it was obtained, but also 
keeps alive an interest in agricultural im¬ 
provements both at home and abroad, and 
stimulates to new exertions. Most publish 
crs furnish their periodicals, when taken in 
considerable number by Societies for distri¬ 
bution, at considerable less than the usual 
subscription price, and the often limited funds 
of agricultural associations can thus be made 
to go further than if cash premiums only are 
paid. We are sending out many hundreds 
of copies of this journal to persons to whom 
it was awarded as premiums at the last 
autumnal shows. Our publishers will be 
ready to extend any reasonable facilities by 
way of reduction in price, to all such agri¬ 
cultural associates as may wish to place the 
American Agriculturist among their premium 
list during the present year. 
Ontario County (N. Y.) Agricultural 
Society. —This Society have issued in neat 
pamphlet form a list of premiums and regu¬ 
lations for the annual exhibition, to be held 
at Canandaigua, September 25th and 26th, 
1855. The officers are : 
President—Wm. Hildreth, of Phelps. 
Cor. Secretary—Henry Howe. 
Rec. Secretary—John S. Bates. 
Treasurer—Jas. S. Cooley. 
BOOK NOTICES. 
THE PRACTICAL LAND DRAINER: A Treatise on 
Draining Land, in which the most approved systems 
of drainage and the scientific principles on which they 
depend are explained, and their comparative merits 
discussed ; with full directions for cutting and making 
drains, and remarks upon the various materials of 
which they maybe constructed. Numerously illus¬ 
trated. By B. Munn. C. M. Saxton & Co., New 
York. 
We have long been alive to the importance 
to American farmers of a more general and 
thorough system of draining, believing, as 
we do, that draining accompanied by deep- 
plowing and subsoiling, is to be the great 
means of improving the majority of the farms 
in this country. In England, Scotland, and 
other European countries, this improvement 
has been carried out to an extent scarcely 
dreamed of by the mass of our farmers, and 
with the very happiest result. Books and 
practical treatises upon this subject have 
been multiplying; the agricultural press has 
teemed with communications, essays, &c., 
upon draining, and the mass of farmers there 
are pretty well informed upon this subject. 
But here, with our already large list of agri¬ 
cultural publications, we have not had a 
handbook even, devoted to draining, as it 
may and should be practised among our own 
farmers. The first if not the only attempt 
to discuss this subject fully, in its American 
application, was in a series of articles which 
were prepared for and published in this jour¬ 
nal nearly two years since. 
Feeling this want of something more full 
and practical, we seized with some eager¬ 
ness a little volume bearing the imposing 
title-page placed at the head of this notice, 
and without stopping to inquire who was the 
author, or his fitness to undertake the work, 
we commenced reading it, with strong hopes 
that we should find the desideratum. But 
we are completely disappointed, as every 
one will be who goes to this volume for a 
plain, practical description of the principles 
upon which draining is founded, and of the 
best means of applying those principles to 
practice in the varying circumstances in 
which farmers of this country find them¬ 
selves placed. The compiler is evidently 
unskilled in communicating thoughts to un¬ 
read, unscientific men. 
The author (compiler) says, “ he has rather 
sought to explain various systems and the 
mode of carrying them out, at the same time 
pointing out their comparative advantages, 
than to advance any pet system of his own.” 
He does “ not claim for himself any origi¬ 
nality of principle or practice.” In this he 
is, to say the least, honest, for we find little 
or nothing in this volume indicating that he 
has any system of his own, or which is not 
contained, in substance, if not in the same 
words, in the works of Stephens, Loudon 
and Johnston. We should be glad to find 
even a compilation of some of their more 
valuable teachings, arranged and translated, 
so to speak, into an essay easily read and 
understood by the generality of farmers, and 
including something of the experience and 
practice of the few successful drainers in 
this country. We judge the compiler has 
not heard of John Johnston, and others, in 
this country, and we see nothing in this vol¬ 
ume which an ordinary writer, with no prac¬ 
tical experience, could not easily gather from 
a small agricultural library. But having 
spoken thus honestly—not willingly—of the 
claims of the title-page, we stiil advise all 
interested in this subject—and what farmer 
is not—to procure a copy of this book, if he 
has not the works from which it is principal¬ 
ly compiled, for he will here find considera¬ 
ble that will interest and instruct, and is 
probably the best he can obtain till some 
other practiced hand shall furnish us a bet¬ 
ter work. 
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION- 
CITY OF NEW-YORK. Thirteenth Annual Re¬ 
port of the Board of Education, for the year 1854. 
We are indebted to Mr. Albert Gilbert, 
Clerk of the Board, for a copy of the above 
work, which is a very valuable document of 
several hundred pages, embracing reports 
from the different departments of the Public 
School System of the City arid County of 
New-York, together with a number of en¬ 
graved plans of the interior arrangements, 
and exterior perspective of various school 
buildings. The whole work, and especially 
the engraved plans, will furnish many prac¬ 
tical hints to those having charge of Public 
Schools in other cities and towns, and we 
advise all such to secure a copy, which we 
presume may be obtained free from Mr. 
Gilbert, as some 5,000 were printed for dis¬ 
tribution. 
Kicking Mules. —A subscriber sometime 
since asked for “ the best method of shoeing 
a mule that kicks badly.” We have never 
owned such a mule, and after repeated in¬ 
quiries of those driving them in this vicinity, 
we have found no one who does not speak in 
