THE STRAWBERRY. a communication for the Western Farmer and Gardener, illustrates this part of the subject by the following anecThe excellence and value of this fruit are so well dote. He says he was trying in vain so to express himknown as to need no recommendation. This is a good self as to enable a person not a botanist, to distinguish the season of the year for transplanting. Mr. Kenrick's de-male and female plants by the blossom, when a young scription of the mode of cultivation, as given in the "Newson of his German vine-dresser, conveyed the idea in a American Orchardist," is as follows: few words. "Why," said he to the person, 66 you not understand! The husband he always have de beard, de frow she have none." Mr. Longworth adds, "a quire of paper could not give a more definite description. In the male plant, the face of the flower is covered by a long yellow beard, that almost hides it. The female has the beard, but so closely shaven as not to be perceptible to the naked eye. The male blossom is generally also, of double size." "For the reception of the plants, the grounds may be trenched twenty inches deep, and a quantity of half-rotted manure incorporated to half this depth. For economy, it is also recommended in the final transplanting, to set the plants in beds of four rows each; the rows running in a longitudinal direction; the distance between the beds varying from two to two and a half feet, according to the roots to be planted, as some varieties require much more space than others. During the first year, the runners to Mr. Longworth recommends planting the pistilate and be carefully destroyed before they have taken root.staminate varieties in separate beds, two and a half feet Around such as show fruit, grass or straw is placed; apart, "every fifth bed being a male." If they are (Keen recommends the same, for the plant derives its planted in the same beds, the male, or staminate plants, name from this circumstance.) This protects alike the soon over-run the others, and no fruit is obtained. soil from washing rains, from a scorching sun, and the consequent evaporation of its moisture; it protects the fruit from becoming soiled. But as soon as the fruit is gathered, this covering is to be removed, and the soil kept clear of weeds by the hoe till autumn. In autumn, all the spaces, including the alleys, to be dug carefully over with a pronged fork, so as not to injure their roots. Both Keen and Mr. Knight, however, direct manure to be applied before this last operation is commenced, and Mr. Knight, has particularly cautioned against digging so deep as to disturb the roots, as it weakens the force of the plants, The second summer Lindley states that the plant will bear their best crop and finest fruit; the beds and outside of the alleys should be covered with mown grass, or with straw, three or four inches thick; by this method, he states he has found the fruit not only more abundant, but of finer quality." As to varieties, Mr. Breck of the N. E. Farmer, who has had much experience in the cultivation of this fruit, says "after having tried a multitude of sorts, we should recommend for common cultivation, Hovey's Seedling, as the very best for the general crop-Early Virginia for early use, and the English Wood for late. Many new and highly extolled varieties have disappointed the expectations of the horticulturist." FARMING ON THE AROOSTOOK. Now that the North-eastern boundary is finally settled, the best portions of the former "disputed territory" are becoming rapidly settled. From all we can learn, we have little doubt that our neighbors of New-Hampshire and Maine, would find the inducements for emigrating to the Aroostook Valley, equal in many respects to those of "In the vicinity of Boston the following mode is often any other section. A correspondent of ours, who has adopted: The vines are usually transplanted in August. purchased and is now improving a tract of land there, The rows are formed from eighteen inches to two feet with a view to a residence, writes as follows: "The soil asunder. The runners, during the first year, are de- lies on a lime-stone rock, and is from one foot to two feet stroyed. In the second year they are suffered to grow deep, of different colors, such as light yellow, chocolate and fill the interval, and in the autumn of that year, the color, light gray or black mold, like old barn-yard mawhole of the old rows are turned under with the spade, nure. These four varieties are often met with in the disand the rows are thus shifted to the middle of the space. tance of two rods, and the settlers like that land best The same process is repeated every second year. Ano- which consists of these different kinds, so located as to ther mode which may be recommended generally, is to mix together in cultivating. The crops, when I was at plant the strawberries in rows thirty inches asunder and the Aroostook last August, (1843) were superior in apnine inches distant in the row, and suffer the vines to ex-pearance to any thing I had ever seen or conceived of. tend to the width of eighteen inches, leaving twelve The oats were up to a man's chin-the wheat about as inches for an alley; allow eighteen inches width to the high, with heads seldom less than four and sometimes alleys, and three feet asunder to the rows; and to form nine inches long-and the barley from four to four and a new beds every three years, or never suffer the bed to ex-half feet high. The potatoes were very well advanced, ist over four years; and to plant out in August in prefer-and of that peculiar richness and mealiness which no poence to Spring." Some good horticulturists, however, tatoes have, not raised in or near the 'Provinces.'" prefer planting in spring. Indian corn is not cultivated very extensively on the Much has been said about the sex and character of the Aroostook; still there is some raised there, and our strawberry. It is defined by botanists as belonging to friend writes that he is informed by a man who is operathe order of plants, (Icosandria Polyginia,) which have ting there this season, that "the corn there was knee the male and female organs in the same flower,-yet high the first of July, and looked as it used to in Kennesome have contended that it is diacious in its character-bec when growing on a dung-heap.” that is producing the male and female organs on different plants. The theory advocated by Mr. Longworth, CEDAR SHINGLES.-The Springfield Gazette saysof Cincinnati, and which is probably correct, is, that ev-" Mr. John Bliss of Wilbraham left at our office, last ery blossom contains both the male and female organs in a greater or less degree of perfection; but that in some varieties the different organs are not developed in the due proportion to insure fructification. In some kinds, the female organs, (pistils) are defective, in others, the male, (stamens.) Those varieties in which the female organs are disproportionably developed, though when left to themselves they are generally sterile, will often produce fruit of extraordinary size when brought in contact with plants in which the male organs are largely developed; but there are some varieties in which the female organs are so defective, and the male organs are so much predominant, that they cannot be fructified, and are, therefore, under all circumstances, totally barren. week, some shingles that were taken from the roof of his barn, on the 9th inst., where they had remained 104 years, having been put on by his grand-father, Ensign Abel Bliss, in May 1740. The shingles were of 5-8 thickness, made of cedar which grew on the farm of the then owner, and during the time stated had covered the west half of the north roof, the other part having in that time been twice covered with pine shingles. They were 20 to 24 inches long, and six inches exposed to the weather. The roof boards were in suitable order for re-shingling." CATTLE SHOWS THIS SEASON.-New-York State, at Poughkeepsie, Sept. 18 and 19.—Hampden Co. (Mass.) at Springfield, Oct. 16, 17.- -Coshocton Co. (O.) Oct. A little experience will soon enable any one to distin- ||25.-—Newberry (S. C.) Sept. 25.-Philadelphia, guish the male and female organs of the strawberry-or on the Germantown turnpike, 3 miles from the city, Oct. the staminate and pistilate flowers. Mr. Longworth, in||16, 17.-Kings Co. (N. Scotia) at Kentville, Sept. 26. MR. LUTHER TUCKER-Your late and lamented asso-||tively limited, and when the country had not recovered ciate Willis Gaylord, commenced a notice (Cultivator from the ravages of war, particularly the southern part vol. 10th, p. 170) of the essays contained in the printed which had been in possession of the enemy. The matevolume of the "Transactions of the first New-York Ag-rials however which form the first volume of the Transricultural Society," and of the men who organized it. actions were written by men who loved their country, Among other remarks he observes that "the leading spirits of this association were men of powerful minds, far-reaching in their views, and in their practice evidently in advance of their age." (Anno. Dom. 1721.) true patriots, men who were both practical and scientic, some of whose writings may be read with advantage, even in these days of increased population, extended agriculture, and scientific farming. In my early days I had a taste and inclination to en- We find by examining the volume of Transactions gage in agriculture; but circumstances diverted me into that the society was not purely agricultural. The title another course, and kept me so for many years, until de- runs thus-" Transactions of the Society for the promotion olining health impelled me to rural pursuits, and the ful- of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures, instituted in the Alment of the wishes of my earlier life. It was then I State of New-York." Thus soon after the war of inderead and studied the old agricultural society's Transac-pendence, our wise men in the agricultural community, tions, and admired the writings of Livingston, L'Hom- saw the necessity of encouraging the mechanic arts and medieu, DeWitt, De La Bigarre, and others. Associated manufactures, as well as agriculture, as it had been the with these worthy men was the learned SAMUEL L. MITCHILL, M. D., with whom the writer was personally acquainted, and whose labors in aid of agriculture, and in agricultural chemistry, it may be interesting at the present day to notice. policy of Great Britain not to let even a hob nail" be made in the colonies. This policy in relation to these United States was continued by the British after the war. And it is in the recollection of many, as well as of the writer, when English merchants deluged the country The old Agricultural Society was organized in 1791, with their manufactures of wool, and cotton, and iron, and the first address was delivered by Dr. Mitchill in and leather, and many other articles which our own citi1792, before the members of the society and the state le- zens can now manufacture as well as they. gislature then holding their sittings in the city of New- Of the five addresses before the the society, as publishYork. It was incorporated in 1793, and the first volume ed in their volume of Transactions, Dr. Mitchill deliverof Transactions was published at Albany in 1801. It ed two, viz: one in 1792, and one in 1798. In the winthus appears that it required ten years before materials ter of 1791-2, the legislature met in the old City Hall in could be collected sufficient to form a volume. When the city of New-York, and at that session he was a mem the society was organized, it was shortly after the revo-ber of assembly from the county of Queens, and though lutionary war, when agriculture was in a depressed con-young, his agricultural, his scientific and general knowdition, when the settled parts of the state were compara-ledge, led him to associate with men of learning, and he was very active in the organization of the first State Ag-poverty, filth, and apparent wretchedness; but in spite of ricultural Society, of which he was for several years the all this, half an acre of land here answers a better purcorresponding secretary. He was called upon to deliver pose, and produces more than ten times as much as with the inaugural address, at the organization of the society you, because every inch of it is manured and cultivated in 1791, and we find it full of scientific and practical in- to the best advantage. The Americans are in general formation. Indeed it was so well received by those who bad farmers; they either are not industrious, or if they heard it, (among whom was his preceptor Dr. Samuel are diligent, they want contrivance and economy, to emBard,) that it caused him to be appointed Professor of ploy their labor and exertions to the best advantage. Chemistry and Agriculture, in Columbia college, New-They seem not to know how to combine "art with York, of which Dr. Bard was a trustee. Before pro-strength," to unite "contrivance with industry,” to associceeding to examine his addresses and agricultural essays ate "labor with convenience," or to blend "convenience we will give a sketch of his life. with elegance.' These you have yet to learn." In this letter, Mr. Editor, written by a young American in Scotland, fifty-eight years ago, we have some remarks which are applicable at the present time. RICHMOND. Staten Island, April 24, 1845. NUMBER II. In our former communication it was stated that Dr. Mitchell delivered two addresses before the old Agricultural Society. It is now intended to notice them more Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill was an extraordinary man. He was the maker of his own fortune and reputation. He be. gan the world with impaired health, no money, and few or no influential friends. When he returned from Europe in 1787, his fortune consisted in his medical education, but he was unable to commence the practice of that learned profession in consequence of (hemoptysis) bleeding from the lungs, which occurred in London a short time previous to his return to his native country. He accordingly retired to the family residence on Cow-neck, in the town-particularly. The first was delivered before the Society ship of North Hempsted, Queens county, and state of and members of the Legislature in the old City Hall of New-York, where he joined his father and brethren in the city of New-York, then situated at the corner of Wall agricultural pursuits. There he put theory into practice, and Nassau streets, on the 10th January 1792, soon after and as far as his health and strength would permit, unit- the organization of the Society. ed with them in renovating the farm, which had been impaired by the British troops who had encamped upon it, and committed depredations without restraint. After some prefaratory remarks and reference to the Idills of Theocritus, the Georgics of Virgil, among the ancients, and the pastoral essays of Gessner and Haller in lips in England, he comes down from the lofty flights of later times among the Germans, and of Pope and Philthese fanciful writers to matters of fact, to the "dull pursuits of civil life," and he first points out those things for which we should be thankful: bounty has bestowed upon this fortunate land, that which "For among the numberless favors which Divine in the first place claims our grateful acknowledgments, is the abundant harvest which rewards the industry of the farmer: since to a healthful climate and a fruitful soil, there is annually added the genial influence of a season that beautifies spring with blossoms, and loads autumn with fruit." p. 17. Then he points out the condition of the land of this country, when first subjected to the plow: This farm is still in possession of the family, and is owned by Judge Mitchill, the Doctor's only surviving brother, who has been long known as an able practical farmer, and who has cultivated it from his youth. It was devised to the family by Dr. Samuel Latham, (the ma ternal uncle of the Judge) who died in 1781. The British obtained possession of Long Island in 1776, and held it in military subjection the entire period of the revolutionary war, and a part of the time their troops occupied Dr. Latham's farm. The Hessian soldiers under Col. Wormzer encamped on it, and the adjoining one of Benjamin Akerly, both of whom were revolutionary whigs, and were obliged to entertain their enemies, who occupied their houses and lands, and destroyed their trees and fences. Other friends of the country suffered in the same manner, and were probably designated by the to- "Hitherto, the American husbandman has cultivated a ries of those days, who took delight in seeing the Bri-soil, enriched for ages by the yearly addition of a fresh tish despoil the fair possessions of the advocates of the stratum of mould. From the first existence of vegetation revolution and of civil liberty. It was on that farm that upon the dry land, decayed plants have continually furDr. Mitchell, after the war, became a practical agricultu-nished a supply of manure, which the winds and rain rist, and hence we shall find in examining his writings have liberally spread abroad. As the supply was annuin relation to husbandry, that they are not merely theo- ally greater than the consumption, the earth, unexhausted retical. by its productions, increased in fertility. The thick layer of vegetable mould which covered the face of the earth was a store-house of food for plants, and this quantity was greatly increased by the conversion of wood into ashes by clearing. It is not wonderful, then, that for some years newly-cleared settlements should abound in produce, and require little more labor than that of plowing and reaping. During this period the provision is wasting, which for centuries had been accumulating. But Edinburgh, June 1st, 1786. the time will come, and indeed in many places now "A spirit of industrious enterprise prevails much in is, when the land, repeatedly wounded by the plowthis country at present; for in order to incite the people share, and exhausted of its richness, shall be too weak of to industry and excellence, rewards are offered for al- itself, to make plants grow with their former luxuriance. most everything. Premiums are distributed to those This may be called the era of systematic agriculture, who embark in the whale-fishery, and to such as employ when man, taking the earth from nature's hand, bare of themselves in the capture of herrings, and to such as spin manure, is so to manage and dispose it artificially, that it the best and finest thread, and to others who are most ex-shall yield him first a subsistence, and then an overplus pert in plowing land, and even to musicians who can play most completely on the Highland bag-pipe. The good effects of such liberal offers are very manifest; for they promote ship building, employ carpenters and sailors, procure fish and oil, advance manufactures, improve agriculture, and reward labour. By such means, Scotland, notwithstanding its natural disadvantages, is advancing rapidly to improvement, and this is conspicuous as well "But how (says he) are fields to be artificially fertilin the advancement of arts and sciences, as in the refine-ized? By manure. This is the great hinge upon which ment of manners among the inhabitants. Distinctions the whole system of agriculture turns. In procuring between people are here very great and striking, for this needful substance, we are first to imitate nature in they who have fortunes and estates live in elegance and collecting all the vegetable matter we can find, suffering splendor; they who have neither, dwell in dependence, nothing to be lost. As however, if a field, yielding Previous to the completion of his medical studies at the celebrated school in the capital of Scotland, Dr. Mitchill wrote a letter to his father Robert Mitchill, on the industry of the Scotch, their employments and agricultural skill. This letter we have been permitted to read, and make the following extract, which will commend it to the perusal of every industrious farmer. The letter is dated at to grow wealthy upon. How far art may go in this species of improvement is yet unknown, as the ultimatum of fertility has never yet been reached." p. 20. Proceeding in the perusal of the address we find that Dr. Mitchill then (1792) a young man, understood the nature of exhausted lands and the means of renovating them as well as we do at this day, (1844.) grass for brutes, or grain for man, is principally exhaustSOILING CATTLE AND HORSES. ed of its produce by the creatures whom it supports, a very inconsiderable quantity remains for manure. What Soiling, or feeding animals during the summer season then is to be done? Must the land go on to be impover- with green food, cut daily, and given to them in yards or ished from year to year? No. The animal, the vegeta-stables, is nearly unknown in this country, and its advanble, and the mineral kingdom most be ransacked for tages but little understood. This is owing chiefly to two something to aid the growth of plants. The ashes of causes. Land is comparatively cheap, and labor costly; wood and of peat, the muddy depositions of puddles and and the saving of the former, and increase of the latter, ponds, the unrespirable portion of our atmosphere, and by this practice, have prevented a fair trial of its merits. some of the particles floating therein; the various earthy If, however, experience shows that the nett profits of productions of marl, chalk, gypsum, clay and lime, and the farm are greatly increased, even though attended with likewise the excrementitious matters of most animals, greater temporary outlay, the practice ought to be more are found by experience when properly employed, to extensively adopted. The chief advantages of soiling promote directly or indirectly the process of vegetation. are these:-The whole of the green food is consumed When these things are added to the soil, they act in one with less waste than by pasturing; it is not beaten under of these ways. Ist. They are a pabulum plantarum, and foot by cattle's hoofs while in a feeble state, but a full materially contribute to the nutriment of plants; or, 24, and luxuriant growth allowed before it is touched. The They are stimuli to plants, and by exciting them to ac- ground is not poached in wet weather; the cost of divistion cause a greater absorption of food, a better assimila-ion fences is diminished; a great saving of manure is eftion of it, and consequently a more rapid and vigorous fected; and the advantages of rest and quietude secured to growth; or, 3dly, They so alter and dispose the earth in the animals. The chief objection is the amount of labor which plants are rooted, that the radicles shoot more required in cutting the food, and in feeding and littering easily and more extensively through it, or in other words the animals. Hence it becomes a matter of importance it becomes a better filter for straining and applying nour- to strike a balance, as nearly as the results of experiments ishment to their inhaling and absorbing vessels." p. 23. will allow. In this short extract, (Mr. Editor,) we have the principles contained in what are considered as discoveries and improvements of the present day. Very little notice and no application of them ever was made at the time they were promulgated. Well might your late deceased associate say of him and some of his co-laborers in agriculture, that in 1792 they were "evidently in advance of the age," as we shall hereafter be able to show in other particulars. Loudon estimates the product of an acre, mown and fed green to cows, at triple the quantity obtained by pasturing; experiments reported by John Sinclair give the same results,-17 acres in one case, having supported 33 head of cattle more than four months, which had previously required 50 acres of pasture; and the same results were obtained by Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts. Other trials make the difference considerably less, but in such cases the pasture appears to have been suffered to It was stated in our first number that manufactures acquire a tall and heavy growth before the cattle were turnwere embraced in the plan of the "Old Agricultural So-ed in, and thus the advantages of the practice just recom ciety." The address now under consideration speaks of these with due respect and discrimination: mended were partially secured. Several limited experiments made by the writer, decidedly confirm the opinion that not far from three times the amount of product is obtained by soiling, over the common practice of feeding on short pasturage. Many experiments have been performed in England, showing the increased rapidity with which cattle thrive when fed by soiling. In one case, two cows were fed four and a half months, one being soiled, and the other pastured. The former gained 16 stone, the latter 9 stone. In another experiment, 48 cattle were fed, one half by soiling, and one-half by pasture. The soiled cattle sold at six dollars more per head than the other; the food con sumed by the former was grown upon 123 acres, one-seventh of which were ruta bagas, the rest chiefly clover. Thus half an acre supported one head for nearly five months. "But I would not wish to be understood that the whole of our labor should be applied to agricultural pursuits, as if those were, as some argue, the only industry that is productive; for I think it may be clearly proved, that the capital and labor of this country, will be most advantageously employed, if a part of it is expended in manu. factures; the best policy in this respect, being to carry on agriculture without neglecting manufactures, and at the same time so to manage manufactures, as that agriculture may be conducted with a due degree of spirit." This first address before the old Agricultural Society treats of quicklime, plaster of Paris, and fish as manures, and recommends the preservation and even the cultivation of the sugar maple for the production of sugar: also the rearing of the yellow locust (Robinia pseudocacia) for its timber. Attention is called to the vine, the mul- It is obvious that if soiling were generally practiced on berry, the mangel-wurtzel, barley, hops, &c., as neglect-the farm, the necessity of division fences would be neared articles of husbandry. Of animals, he recommended ly obviated. This is the case on the farm of Josiah the introduction into the United States, the Bos bubalis or Quincy, and many farms in England. Sheep, and such tamed Buffaloe of Europe, which Dr. Mitchell observes other animals as need feeding on the ground, being con"has been long domesticated in Hungary and Transylva- fined by hurdle fences, which are removed from time to nia." He also recommends mules and oxen in prefer- time as needed. ence to horses for draught on a farm. He also spoke in the aforesaid address, of sheep, and the wheat insect, (Tipula tritici, more recently named Cecidomia destructor.) Of the latter he subsequently wrote an account which is in the transactions of the old Society. The address concludes by directing attention to injurious insects; for says the author, "We are almost entirely in the dark respecting the history of the insects injurious to our useful plants, and that man would be laudably and beneficially employed, who should collect what is knowable concerning the different. moths, bugs, flies and worms, which infest our fields and gardens." This labor, recommended nearly fifty years since, was neglected until it was undertaken by our late esteemed agricultural writer, Willis Gaylord, who commenced the work, (Trans. N. Y. State Ag. Soc. 1843, p. 127,) but was removed to his rest ere he completed the undertaking. .LYING. The credit that is got by a lie, only lasts till the truth comes out. In order to place before the eye at one view, the merits and disadvantages of this practice, the following estimate is made, which it is believed is not very far from correct: Profits. In 100 acres used as pasture, by soiling, 66 Saving of at least 100 loads manure, if litter is Cost. Expenses of cutting 33 acres of grass, drawing 20 25 $245 $100 Annual profit on 100 acres,...... $145 The preceding calculation is for the average price and quality of land in the State. In the vicinity of cities, that prevail in New-England, you will admit that this is where the interest per acre would be from 7 to 14 dol-saying much for the work. It is a strange circumstance, lars an acre or more, and where maaure might cost 50 cents per load, the profits of soiling over pasturing, would of course be more than double. While on the rich and cheap lands of the western country, it would be a decided loss. It is obvious that to be successful, an abundance of straw litter will be needed; and in proportion as this is abundantly supplied, will be the amount of manure returned. The preceding hints are given with the hope that careful and well directed experiments may be undertaken. Thorough trial only can establish the advantages of the practice. Many throw aside a new thing at once, if full success does not attend the first effort. But a first effort in any of our common farm operations would be far less likely to succeed, than after years of experience. Experiments may be made upon a small scale, with little danger of loss, Moveable Fence-Fig. 79. HURDLES, or moveable fences for confining animals to particular portions of ground, are necessary in many cases, where soiling is extensively practiced; and the operation of thus confining them, possesses in part, the advantages derived from soiling, no portion of the field being touched but that on which they are feeding, which is not left till all the herbage is consumed. The manure, being also thus limited to one spot, may be plowed under before much loss is occasioned by evaporation. A mode of erecting this kind of fence, lately witnessed by the writer, at the residence of Charles Downing of Newburgh, is at once so neat, cheap and useful, that a figure and description may be of value to others. The fence consists of separate frames or "lengths," one of which is shown by fig. 79, with a sharpened post at each end, A. A., driven into holes made in the ground by a crow-bar, and secured at the top by withing together, though the latter is not indispensible. These pieces are made of round poles or sticks split in two, the flat sides being placed next to the cross bars, which are fastened to them by wrought nails at the points of intersection. The points of the posts are driven into the ground to a depth of about fourteen to sixteen inches. These frames or lengths of fence, are four feet high and eight feet long-they cost, besides the material, two dollars and twenty-five cents per dozen in making, or thirty-seven cents a rod. The material would add about thirteen cents more, making half a dollar a rod, for the whole. Two men put up thirty rods of the fence, securing the tops by withes, in about three hours. J. J. THOMAS. but it appears to be a fact, that all insects of the class un- INTRODUCTION OF SPANISH SHEEP. "Honor to whom honor is due." The man who "makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before," is, proverbially, a public benefactor-seeing that his example may benefit others, and stimulate millions to improve their mode of cultivating the soil. One of the contributors to the last volume of Transactions of the New-York State Agricultural Society, concludes his article by invoking some of his wealthy countrymen to emulate the example of the late Patroon, by adding to our country some animal or crop that may promote the welfare of the farming community. "Is any thing more needed to accomplish this object," says the writer in urging the introduction of the Scottish Highland cattle-" is any thing more needed to accomplish this object, than to stir up the spirit of patriotism which exists among the wealthy land-holders of the Empire State, by pointing to the noble example of the venerated Van Rensselaer? Let those who would secure perpetual honor to their names, by conferring favors on their country, emulate his worthy deeds." The spirit which influenced that writer, animates me in now directing public attention to another BENEFACTOR of AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. I allude to DAVID HUMPHREYS, a friend and companion of Washington-the man who, by "introducing the Merino breed of sheep from Spain into this country," rendered to this Republic, services not less valuable than his efforts in the battle-field. Is not such a man worthy of enduring remembrance? and yet how few are there who now remember the name of HUMPHREYS in connexton with the benefits showered upon American Agriculture by the introduction of Spanish sheep? Examining the records of the "Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture," I found a memento which should be published broadly now when public attention is aroused, as it was never before aroused, in reference to Sheep Husbandry. The grateful testimonial uttered to the merits of Col. Humphreys by the Massachusetts Society more than forty years ago, is now before me: And where is the man among us who will grudge the corner of a newspaper necessary for publishing the interesting fact, that on the 29th of October, in the year 1802, that ancient Society, which yet" flourishes like a green bay tree," UNANIMOUSLY VOTED INSECTS INJURIOUS TO AGRICULTURE. MESSRS. EDITORS-Permit me to call your attention, and also that of every American Farmer, to a work pub- "That a gold medal be presented to the Hon. David lished in Massachusetts entitled "A Treatise on some of Humphreys for introducing the Merino breed of sheep the insects of New-England, which are injurious to vegeta- from Spain into this country; and that the Rev. Dr. Partion; by T. W. HARRIS, M. D." Cambridge, Mass.ker be a committee to procure said medal, and to cause 1842. I obtained an early copy of this work, and have such inscriptions to be engraven as he shall judge suitanow had the advantage of two seasons for comparing the ble, and to transmit the same agreeably to said vote." details of the book with such insects as have come with- Thus endeth the first chapter. In the next, I may in my reach: and I am authorized by this experience to mention a few more facts on this subject, in connexion say, that it has more than answered my expectations, al- with the statements made by Col. Humphreys concernmost equalled my most sanguine hopes. So far, evening the Merinos, when he introduced that breed into the RHO. here in Maryland, I have found no insect that could be em- western world. braced in the object of the work or explained in the title, that was not fully described in that Treatise. When you recollect that the work only pretends to describe insects AGRICULTURE is the most ancient, the most honorable and the most useful of arts. |