out having a sample before him. Where the sheep had been exposed to the wet, the fibres were uneven, and weak in the center, so that when wound up, [here Mr. B., with a piece of wool, described what he meant,] it would not make a thread of uniform thickness. To be good, it should be uniform in its thickness from one end to another. Mr. B. then referred to the patent report, as furnishing other particulars on this head.

Mr. REED asked if, when sheep were sheared early, and turned into the storm, it did not injure the wool.

Mr. BLANCHARD thought it was from the fact that when sheep are exposed to the water, the ends of the wool are injured. He was told that it was so regarded where they grow the best wools; never suffered to go into the water from year to year. turned into the grass even till the dew is off.

the sheep are

They are not

Mr. ScOVEL said that sheep were injured, too, by starting their feed too soon after feeding is commenced.

Mr. REED asked to have the top of a good specimen of wool described.

Mr. BLANCHARD said that it should be square and even, of the same thickness at the ends as in the middle; not smooth, like a plane board, but standing in clusters, which he called staples.

And then the meeting adjourned.

MEETING ON THE SUBJECT OF AN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL.

A conversational meeting, for the discussion of the above subject, was held at the 1st Presbyterian church, Tuesday evening, Sept. 11th. Mr. DELAFIELD, of Seneca county, on taking the chair, after having stated the object of the meeting, proceeded to remark that if he was not mistaken, about seven-eights of the population of this State were agriculturists, and hence the necessity of such an Institution as the one proposed. The subject had already attracted the attention of the Legislature of this State, and a movement had been made in reference to this important matter. He had often asked himself the question, how it was that the practical farmers had paid so little regard to this subject? It struck him that they, of all others, needed education-an elementary education in the various branches of knowledge. The farmer needed a knowledge of law to enable him to act in a judicial capacity; a knowledge of medicine in order to encounter the diseases to which he is subjected while far away from the places where medical skill can be obtained. In short, he needed a general knowledge of the

various branches of science. He hoped if there were lawyers in the house, they would not be offended when he said that the farmers could settle their disputes without their aid, and there was no actual necessity for their services. Farmers were too content to let their children receive only the common rudiments of education; they needed something more; they needed a direct knowledge of the matters with which they had to deal. Our schools and colleges instructed their sons in the more abtruse departments of education, but unfortunately led away their minds from the cultivation of the earth, and hence were of little use to the farmer's son. The farmer's son needed such an education as would enable him to cultivate the earth intelligently-to know what he does and why he does it-to know from facts derived from research, that what he does is right and not because his father or his neighbor did so before him.

Hon. SAM'L CHEEVER, of Saratoga, apologized by saying that his friends had taken the liberty of posting him up as one who was to open the discussion in the absence of Mr. BLUNT, of N. Y., and this was the first notice he had of the part he was expected to take. Having given the subject some consideration he would submit such views as seemed to him important. He proceeded to remark that education upon any subject presupposed the want of it. He found that this subject of an Agricultural School met with more opposition from farmers than from any other class. Professional and educated men readily yielded assent to it. But, says the farmer, "what do we want to know about your chemistry and your geology, in order to raise our corn and potatoes? We know it all now." The fact was, the farmer needed education in his profession just as much as the lawyer and the physician, who were obliged to spend years of time to qualify them for success in their pursuits. The farmer had a mistaken notion that his was a subordinate pursuit. Was it so? What progress would the merchant, the manufacturer and the mechanic make with as little knowledge of their respective occupations, as the farmer has ordinarily of his? Such a question might startle those who can raise such good crops; but might not the fact of their raising fine crops be perchance because they had hit upon the course which science indicated? What did they know of the nature of the soils they cultivated? What could they tell of the composition of clay, sand or muck?

Science has already done much and is still doing more to shed light upon our path. It has taught us the elements constituting a fertile soil and those of a barren one. It has taught us the elements found in all the fertilizing agents or manures, within our reach, whether of mineral,

vegetable or animal formation. tures of soil to make to supply with one the deficiencies of the other. It has taught us what manures to apply to sterility to produce fertility. It has taught us the elements constituting the plants of our agricultural crops. Hence we may determine what crop we may expect most successfully to place upon any given soil, and what manures are best suited to its growth.

Hence we are shown what admix

Science has also taught us the elements constituting the different parts of our domestic animals, from which useful suggestions are obtained for feeding them according to the end to be attained. For instance it is found that our Indian corn contains elements calculated to fatten the animal, but not those that strengthen the muscles so much as those found in our oats. The one, therefore, should be fed for one purpose and the other for another. This principle has been tested in practice through the agency of the State Agricultural Society. A pair of oxen of about equal weight and equal vigor, were put at hard work, and one fed upon corn and the other upon oats, of equal weight, daily, for two or three months, and each with a full supply of hay. It was found that the one fed on oats soon got the mastery at the draft over his mate, and maintained it so long as he was so fed. The feed was then reversed for the same length of time. The corn-fed ox when put upon oats immediately recovered his power, and obtained the mastery over his late superior, and maintained it to the end. Science and experiment have here established a fact of vast importance to the farmers of this state in feeding their laboring animals. Still, with hundreds of such experiments and such results before us, there are too many of our own class among us who are daily telling us that our agricultural books and our agricultural papers are not worth reading, and that agricultural science is a "humbug." To such I can only say, if you do not cast about you and do not read, you are in great danger of being left behind.

True it is, books alone, without practical application, would be slow to make a good farmer. The professor of mathematics, directly from the schools, with all his books, would doubtless make a sorry figure in navigating the ship in a storm, and might receive useful lessons from the less educated shipmate. But when the science of the mathematician is added to the practice of the sailor the accomplished navigator is produced.

The practical farmer, so boastingly calling himself, may, if he has fallen upon a fertile spot, succeed for years and get tolerable crops, by following in the old track, without the lights of science, and probably for

the reason that he has accidentally hit upon the course which science would indicate. But in a large portion of the long cultivated parts of our country, the fertility of the soil has been exhausted by those hereditary systems, if systems they may be called, and nothing but science and intelligence will produce restoration.

If the man without reading, and without books, on finding his crops. failing under a long and exhausting course, can be induced at all to seek improvement through experiment, he is as likely to make the wrong application as the right. He has seen his neighbor restore a field by the application of lime, and concludes his fields have the same disease and must be cured by the same remedy. He lays out his money to make the experiment and fails. Another neighbor has succeeded with plaster, and his money is again spent upon that, without success, and so he goes on exhausting the catalogue of manures, and exhausting his purse, until he gives up in despair, sells out to a reading farmer and goes to Wisconsin or Texas, where he can begin again his exhausting process upon a new and fertile spot. His reading successor examines his worn out soil, or has it done for a few shillings, and finds it entirely exhausted and destitute of the essential element of potash. He applies a few bushels of ashes instead of lime, in which latter the soil already abounds, and his crops are soon doubled. Instances similar to this are occurring daily around us. I place myself with the rest when I say that no class of men in this country know so little of the business they follow, as do our farmers.

The lawyer spends one third of a life at books to fit himself to enter his profession, and then studies by day and night for the rest of his life to understand his business and do his duty. The divine is found spending all the days of an entire life at his books, to maintain his

standing and discharge his duties. The physician also enters his profession only through a long course of severe study, and then all his life while a "practical physician," spends every spare moment at his books, to see what the skill and the experiments of others are doing. The commercial man and the manufacturer spend their time at their business, and their talents in studying the course of trade and the state of the markets. The artizan of every craft, after years of apprenticeship, spends his days at his work and his nights at his books, to learn and perfect himself in the mysteries of his art and to understand the price current of his wares.

But the farmer is thought to be born with all the knowledge necessary for his calling, and that learning and science are matters for other folks to trouble themselves about; when in fact how little do we know even of good practical farming, to say nothing of scientific. What do most of us know of the component parts of the soil we cultivate, in what they are deficient, and the cheapest and best means to supply such deficiencies; and what do we know of the elements in the manures we are constantly using. Still we go on blindfold, applying and mixing the one with the other, sometimes with good effect, sometimes with bad, and sometimes with no effect at all. What should we think of the man who should enter the laboratory of the chemist, and proceed to throw together his alkalies, his acids and his metals, without any knowledge of their properties or of their affinities, and then tell us he expected certain results. We should expect to see him burn his fingers, at least if he did not get blown up, and yet the admixture of soil, the application of manures, and the cultivation of our crops, is a constant but enlarged chemical process.

But to be more practical. How few of us can tell with any approximation to certainty, the difference in effect, in the first and the succeeding crops, of applying manures, in mixing them with the surface, or turning them under the furrow? What portion of us understand the principles of draining and of irrigation, and the expense of cach compared with the benefits? Again, what, as a class, do we know of correct systems of breeding and improving farm stock? of the anatomy and physiology of our animals? of their diseases and their proper treatment? Enlightened practical agriculture, aided by the lights of science, is daily solving and settling many of these questions which are of much importance to us, but questions which, in our confidence that we know all, have never even occurred to many of us. But thanks to the spirit of the times, the dark days of our agriculture are passing away, and light is breaking upon it so clear "that he that runs may read," and he that does not read will be run away from.

Nothing, however, has yet been done in this State, to furnish the means for a good agricultural education. The State Society has repeatedly addressed the Legislature upon this subject, but with little effect until last winter. The Governor, in his message to the last Legislature, feeling the importance and the necessity for an institution for instruction in that branch of knowledge, aware also that the public voice was loudly calling for it, asked their attention to the subject, suggesting the propriety of a