THE CULTIVATOR. 
has become a very important one in this country, and it 
is .one® on which but little has been written. I hope 
others will give their experience through your papers, 
and if it should differ widely from mine, I shall be glad 
to adopt whatever may be seen.to be an improvement. 
Should any one wish further information, I shall be 
ready to answer any questions which the reading of my 
communications may suggest.” 
The Poultry Era.- —Some persons, we think, would 
be puzzled to decide whether the present point in the 
nineteenth century,will be most conspicuously marked in 
history by the self-manufacture of a French Emperor, or 
by the great poultry show's so often held in various parts 
of the world, but more particularly in the region extend¬ 
ing from London to Chicago. The Bostonians have re¬ 
peatedly made quite imposing display; the western states 
are not far behind; and now, we have the intelligence 
of a great exhibition of poultry in the city of London, 
patronized by the most distinguished noblemen of the 
kingdom, and visited by many of the foreign ambassa¬ 
dors, which leaves all the achievments of Yankeedom 
far in the lurch. We may talk about the “mania,'’ 
but the British have some reason for stirring up a feel¬ 
ing of poultry-admiration; for they are importing an¬ 
nually from France upwardspf a hundred millions of 
eggs, the duty on which amounted, in one year, to a lit¬ 
tle more than £25,000, or over a hundred thousand dol¬ 
lars. 
This great metropolitan show included fowls, turkeys,^ 
geese, ducks, pigeons, and rabbits. There were over 
600 pens of fowls (proper) alone, each pen containing 
from two to four. The . Cochin Chinese took • the 
lead far ahead of all others, and filled 249 pens. The 
Spanish, Dorkings, Hamburghs, Polands, Game, and 
Bantams, were fin very respectable numbers. The 
pigeons occupied 249 pens, rabbits 48. 
On the first day, the fee was five shillings, and several 
hundreds visited the collection. On subsequent days- 
the price for admission was only one shilling; on the 
first of which 5,000 entered; on the next the number 
was much greater, and on the third and last it was com¬ 
puted that the number persons passing through the col¬ 
lection was nearly 12,000. The receips could have been 
scarcely less than at one of our great State Fairs. 
A large portion of the collection was sold at auction, at 
the close, and some pens, we observe, brought about £50 
or $250. The entire auction sales amounted to some 
$5,000. A large number of -agriculturists present 
thought that the breeding of poultry was at present 
even more profitable than raising the finer sorts of cattle. 
Ag. Society fop. Albany County. —It will be seen 
by a notice in this paper, that a meeting is to be held in 
this city on the 14th of April, for the pnrpose of organi¬ 
zing an Agricultural Society for this county. This move¬ 
ment should find zealous advocates and firm supporters 
in the farmers of the county, and among the citizens 
generally. The disgrace of being without any organi¬ 
zation, for the improvement of the rural arts and the 
development of the agricultural resources, has rested on 
this central and wealthy county long enough. From 
this cause the impression has gone abroad, that our soil 
is inferior, our farmers destitute of* private enterprise, 
and lacking in public spirit. It remains for the farmers 
to remove this opprobrium, to take a prominent stand in 
the ranks of our agricultural societies, and demonstrate 
tbeir claim to energy and ability, and prove the virtue 
and capability of the soil they cultivate. 
A society was organized in 1841; but it failed to per¬ 
form its duties, and consequently lost the bounty ap¬ 
propriated by the State,, amounting to over $2000, 
which almost all the other counties secured. But it is 
not too late to retrieve our character. We have the ex¬ 
ample of other societies to stimulate and guide us, we 
have experienced and skillful farmers among us who can 
at once give character to our shows, we have men of 
wealth who can and will contribute to a fund necessary 
to a prosperous beginning, and we have abundance of 
farmers who need the benefits of an agricultural society, 
and will profit by them. We trust this design will not 
fail for want of hearty support, and to be suceessful, 
something more than a board of officers and a list of pre¬ 
miums is necessary. Farmers must be aroused, mem¬ 
bers solicited in all parts of the county, and the sooiety 
be composed of the masses and made, to promote their 
interests. —-- 
Improved Water Wheel. —We take pleasure in 
calling the attention of our readers to the figure and 
description of an improved French Turbine Water 
Wheel, invented by Mr. dagger, and manufactured by 
Jagger, Treadwell and Perry of this city. The inventor 
has, by a simple, common-sense application of a*me¬ 
chanical principle, rendered this important piece of me¬ 
chanism more perfect and better adapted to its useful 
purposes, than anything of the kind before known. 
The improvement has been highly spoken of by the 
mechanical journals of the country and by all who have 
used them. * -- 
Stowell’s Evergreen Corn. —In a communication 
from onathan Talcott, of Borne, N. Y., who is a 
careful and skilful farmer, he informs us that this corn 
has failed to fulfill his expectations. He procured the 
seed from Longett -Ad -Griffing of New-York, at $1.50 per 
quart, and is ready to distribute what he has raised 
among his neighbors without price, that its qualities 
may-be further tested. He adds that Prof. Mapes’ di¬ 
rections for keeping were strictly observed. This result is 
similar to that of many others. 
Iron Scythe Snaths. —Inventors and manufactu¬ 
rers of machines could have learned much, if they had 
only given attention to the extraordinary examples of 
contrivance so numerously displayed- in the works of 
creation. We may cite achromatic lenses as one exam¬ 
ple of this sort, which even Newton pronounced imprac¬ 
ticable. while at the ' cry moment he was writing that 
assertion, he was looking through two most perfectly 
constructed achromatic lenses,«just like millions of oth¬ 
ers which had been in existence for thousands of years. 
The ancients were puzzled fora substance to write upon 
-—wasps had been making paper since the creation—a 
crude, brown fabric, to be.surq. Flies and tree frogs 
had for the same period illustrated practically the pres¬ 
sure of the atmosphere, and the principle of the suction 
pump, with beautifully constructed miniature machines; 
and the structure of the arch, which the more ancient 
nations, notwithstanding their superlative skill in ma¬ 
sonry and architecture, knew nothing about, was well 
understood and constantly practiced all that time by a 
little mining ant. The most perfect form of a rod, 
shank, or beam, to combine strength and lightness, is 
illustrated by the tube of birds' quills, and by the straw 
of grains and grasses—the hollow rod or tube. This 
principle has been already applied in a number of in¬ 
stances; but not till now, the middle of the nineteenth 
century, has the hint been taken in the construction of 
scythe snaths,—implements in which lightness and 
strength are pre-eminently required. We observe by 
the patent office records, that, these have been success¬ 
fully manufactured by A., C. & C. N. Clow, of Port 
Byron, N. Y., and learn that they promise great ad¬ 
vantages on the score of durability, strength, lightness, 
and facility of being bent into any desirable form. 
Brush Drains, are the cheapest underdrains we have 
ever constructed—and were made by simply filling the 
ditch nearly full with branches and brush, the buts 
pointing downwards or with the descent, the upper por¬ 
tions or tops being covered with inverted turf, and after 
treading down to one-half their original bulk, covered 
or filled in with earth. These have stood many years, 
and answered a good purpose, the air being excluded 
and decay prevented. We observe that a correspondent 
of Moore's New-Yorker states, that in Europe, 
have been known to continue a hundred years, the 
or exposed parts, being finished with stones. 
Machines at State Fairs.—J. L. Pope, of Man¬ 
lius, N. Y., has pointed out some of the evils resulting 
from a frequent practice with machine-makers, in ex- 
