10 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Government Aid to Agriculture. 
dwelling, where the account hooks arc kept, where hired 
men are settled with and paid, where bargains are 
made with business men, and all consultations of a 
business character are held. Such a room need not be 
more than ten or twelve feet square, and may be of 
very simple construction, warmed by a small stove, and 
not consuming a cord of wood in a year. If the farmer 
does not himself see the advantages of such an office, 
every neat house-wife most certainly will, who is so 
often annoyed by such transactions in those singularly 
appropriate places, the parlor, or around the kitchen 
cook-stove. 
We might add to the list of country conveniences, 
good, well gravelled farm-roads; well paved or flagged 
barn-yards; and self-shutting and self-fastening gates 
for the different fields. 
Want of Accurate Experiments in Cattle. 
• At the late fair of the New-IIampshire Agricultural 
Society, Gen. Glidden remarked that he had gone in¬ 
to Devon stock, and had lost by it in the weight of his 
cattle. The color was excellent, and that had intro¬ 
duced the stock throughout the State ; it could have 
been nothing else, for this breed was deficient in fat¬ 
tening, working, and milking qualities. Other people 
might favor them, but when he found a Durham, or a 
native calf, weighing 20 lbs. per quarter, while the 
Devon weighed but 15 lbs. per quarter, he should be 
in favor of the larger breed. 
This mode of judging of the value of breeds is very 
common, and often very erroneous. A thousand dol¬ 
lars in small bills is worth the same sum in large ones; 
a thousand bushels of corn converted into a thousand 
dollars’ worth of beef in small animals, is worth more 
than if converted into five hundred in large animals. 
Large ones, it is true, are the most imposing in appear¬ 
ance ; but the question is, what have they cost in rais¬ 
ing? This is a question which is rarely asked and 
never answered, in all the controversies about the rela¬ 
tive merits of Durhams and Devons, Merinos and South 
Downs, Berkshires and Landpikes, Suffolks and Alli¬ 
gators, Shanghais and Bantams, Dorkings and Polands, 
but which would quickly settle many disputed points. 
An extraordinary cow will make sixteen pounds of but¬ 
ter per week; but what is the relative cost of this but¬ 
ter, as compared with the product of the eight-pound 
cow ? Is poultry in a ten-pound carcass, cheaper or 
dearer than poultry in five-pound animals ? Are the 
Brahma-pootras or the Dorkings raised at least cost? 
The time expended in controversies of this character, 
would have long ago settled the question if employed 
in well-conducted experiments. A peculiarity of the 
philosophy of the ancients was their exclusive adhe¬ 
rence to speculative reasoning—they preferred dispu¬ 
ting for ages, to observing or experimenting for an 
hour; this absurdity was long since exploded by Lord 
Bacon, but has been lately revived by stock-breeders; 
and we should be glad to see at least half a dozen of 
the most enlightened State agricultural societies, turn 
over a new leaf, and sustain the philosophy of Bacon 
by institutlrg experiments on the subject. 
F. P. Blair stated, in his late Address before the 
Agricultural Association of Montgomery county, Ma¬ 
ryland, that Congress pays annually the sum of about 
one hundred thousand dollars for the publication of 
the Agricultural Report from the Patent Office. This 
report is of importance, mainly, to the congressional 
printer, its contents being comparatively of little value 
to the public, while the sum paid for it is more than 
enough to endow and support an Agricultural Col¬ 
lege and an Experimental Farm. 
Must this money continue to be very nearly wasted, 
or shall an effort be made to secure its appropriation 
for a wiser and more practical purpose ? 
Suppose, for instance, that Congress should issue 
$300,000 in five per cent, stock, $200,000 of it to be 
appropriated to the purchase of Mount Vernon, and 
the other $100,000 to the erection of the buildings, &c., 
necessary to prepare it for an Agricultural Institution. 
This would absorb for interest on the stock, but $15,000 
a year, leaving a balance of $85,000 for the annual 
support of the establishment. This would make an 
institution certainly as creditable to the countrv and 
infinitely more useful, than the military academy at 
West Point. 
Have the United States Agricultural Society, the sev¬ 
eral State Agricultural Associations, and the whole 
farming population of the country, sufficient influence 
to procure from Congress a change of this $100,000 
appropriation for this desirable object? We believe it 
can be accomplished; and we should be glad to see 
the United States Agricultural Society, or the State 
Agricultural Society of New-York, take the initiatory 
steps toward its accomplishment. In what better work 
can they engage 1 —«$>=— 
Importance of Method. 
No greater element of success can be introduced in¬ 
to the habits of the agriculturist, than a strict, method¬ 
ical manner of conducting the business of the farm, 
and no deficiency will more largely detract from his 
prospect of success, than a lack of method. The con¬ 
trast between the man of method and the man with¬ 
out, is vivid in the extreme. The business affairs of 
the one are in all manner of forms and conditions, save 
in a prosperous form, while those of the other are. in 
sailor parlance, ‘ snug, trim and all ataut.’ The con¬ 
trast in prosperity and general enjoyment of life is 
fully as great as in the externals of business affairs. 
The successful management of a farm requires a 
vast amount of care and attention, a close oversight; 
in short, an ineessant watchfulness. There must be 
brought to the task no insignificant quantity of the 
most multifarious talents, and they must be steadily 
and sturdily exercised. The details of farm manage¬ 
ment are of the most extended and complicated char¬ 
acter, and can be fully and successfully compassed, but 
by the active exertion of a disciplined and educated 
mind, which must call out its full resources, not forget¬ 
ting the systematic arrangement, and prompt execu¬ 
tion of all requirements for labor and skill. 
