JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, ETC. 
87 
missioners would fall far short of the object. 
“A president, with <§>2,000, and six professois, 
with $1,250 each, per annum,” would not at all 
subserve the purpose. We can hardly see the 
use of any president in such a concern, unless 
an active, intelligent man, also occupy the 
professional chair. If eminently fitted for such 
a post, we would willingly give him not only 
$2,000 a-year, but whatever additional sum 
might be necessary to secure his services. And 
not only would we give this to the president, 
but cheerfully should this be awarded to each 
of the professors who were equally fitted for the 
station. And we think the funds would be far 
more advantageously appropriated to two or 
three men of the highest genius and attainments, 
if no more could be found, than to be doled out 
in paltry sums to mere tyros in the art. There 
is, at least, one such now temporarily abiding 
among us, who is eminently fitted for such a 
chair, and whom the public spirit—nay, the 
merest spirit of selfishness, rightly considered, 
should hereafter induce to remain permanently 
among us. We mean Prof. James F. W. John¬ 
ston, of Durham, England, whose ingenious, 
laborious, and practical teachings, on some of 
the most important features of agricultural 
science, have illuminated two hemispheres. 
To Dr. Leibig, of Geissen, notwithstanding his 
erratic theories, we would also make an offer 
of a professorship, in gratitude for the impulse 
he has given to agricultural and physical 
science, and the possible good he may yet ren¬ 
der to them. And may we be permitted to ask, 
if the salary of our chief magistrate would be 
too much to offer to such men'? We can find 
ten thousand men within this state, who deem 
themselves, and are considered by their admir¬ 
ing friends, fully qualified to exercise the guber¬ 
natorial functions; yet, do we know of one 
within our state, who is just the man for such a 
station? , . . „ 
We object decidedly to the professorships of 
law and engineering,recommended in the report. 
These principles are taught in numerous instan¬ 
ces elsewhere, and nothing extraneous should 
be added to such an institution to swell its ex¬ 
penses, but what is purely agricultural. On the 
other hand, we would give to entomology and the 
whole subject of the worm, grub, and insect tribes, 
the fullest attention the subject should occu¬ 
py. Hundreds of millions are annually received 
throughout the world, for the products of the 
silkworm, the honey bee, cochineal, &e.; and 
more than hundreds of millions are annually 
lost by the depredations of the cut and wire 
worm, turnip beetle and slug, the Hessian fly, and 
wheat worms of various kinds, the cotton louse, 
slug, and boll worm, the curculio, the orange 
louse, peach, and other fruit-tree worms, the bee 
moths, and an endless catalogue of kindred 
marauders. And who knows how far down the 
scale of existance these insects descend ? and 
it is yet a mooted point, whether the potato dis¬ 
ease, the pear blight, and the yellows in peach 
trees, are not the effect of some insect enemy, 
a knowledge of whose existence might lead to 
their destruction ? 
When we sit down deliberately to estimate 
some of the probable results of the establish¬ 
ment of an agricultural college, we are amazed 
with the apathy displayed on this subject, by 
some of our most enlightened men. If properly 
organised such an institution would probably, 
within ten years, annually return to the farmers 
of the state' of New York, at least ten times its 
actual aggregate cost, and it is more likely it 
would repay twenty times the amount. Every 
additional bushel of wheat raised on a farm 
within the state, would give the sum required to 
establish the college; and even the additional 
profits in poultry consequent upon the intro¬ 
duction of improved varieties and their more 
judicious management, would be sufficient to 
found a new college every year. 
In conclusion, we say, whatever is to be done in 
this matter should be well done. It is a perfectly 
easy and simple matter, so to endow and arrange 
a college, as to kill it off in five years. We may 
thus befool ourselves, but we shall not thereby 
stultify our sister states. Massachusetts will have 
an efficient agricultural institution within a short 
time; and with all our zeal, we much doubt if she 
will not be ahead of us in this business. Yet we 
can distance her if we choose. We have the pre¬ 
sent vantage ground. Let us have from one quarter 
to one half a million of dollars to endow and carry 
it out successfully; and rather than accept a less 
sum than the least indicated, the money had better 
be left in the treasury or squandered, as many 
such sums have been before, by political profli¬ 
gates. We want no sum that shall only ensure 
disgrace to agricultural science while profess¬ 
ing to uphold and disseminate it. If we had 
one man of sufficient eloquence, and the proper 
knowledge on this subject, to enforce its claims 
on the legislature, the amount would be voted 
by acclamation. Not a member would dare 
go home to his dinner, and look a leg of mutton 
or a cabbage head in the face, after witholding 
from agriculture the paltry sum she now de¬ 
mands, and which she would repay to every 
one of our citizens, with such bountiful returns 
in our augmented harvests. 
Jerusalem Artichoke.— It is alleged, that the 
liquor in which this vegetable has been boiled, 
like that from potatoes, will poison both man 
and beast. The best way is to steam both; or 
boil and throw away the liquor. 
Have any of our readers experienced any 
ill effects to their stock, in feeding the raw arti¬ 
choke ? 
We will thank such as have had experience 
with this root, to give us the results of feeding 
it; also, their manner of cultivating ; yield per 
acre ; and its value, as compared with potatoes, 
Indian corn, &c., both in bushels, and from the 
same quantity of land of similar quality; and 
the comparative cost of cultivation. 
Geraniums run wild on the rocks on the 
island of Madalena, near the north coast of 
Sardinia. Capt. Roberts has a hedge 200 yards 
long and two yards high.— Gard. Chi'on. 
