Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-01-06
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.


In this country so many gentlemen justly iameu
for their services in the cause of agricuituI"
progress, as are embraced on the roll Oh 'he
board now in session in this city. Enough |
among them-some sixty in ail-there are some |
who NAV be inexperienced, and some who are |
,imn,v ambitious of having their names con-
nectsd with the deliberations and action of
,ucb a body, these are few, indeed, compared
with the number of them who have great sgricul
tural and horticultural experience, or who
have devoted long years to the cause Of the
progress of agricultural science as investigators
and writer's upon the subject.
Much complaint ehas been made over the
country on the ground that the business of
the Agricultural Bureau of the Patent Office
has been managed wholly under the advice of
theorists, bent especially on building up an
Agricul tural department of the Government,
really foreign to the constitution in its aims
and tendencies. We have every reason to be-
lieve that it was resolved to assemble this
board, in great part, in order to do away with
this impression so industriously sought to be
made general. In their recent brief addresses
TO its members, the Secretary of the Interior
and the Commissioner Of the Patent Office dis
tnctly stated that they had been assembled to
revise the list Of questions to be sent out over
the land with the view of carrying out the law
of Congress directing the procurement of
thorough and complete agricultural statistical
information, now so greatly needed in the
transact ton of the business of the Interior De-
partment of the Government-to suggest after
careful study Of them, such alterations and
amendments as their individual and conjoint
experience may assure them is proper. They
are also themselves to answer as many of them
as each member of the Board can
Heretofore efforts have been made by the
Department to obtain precisely such informa-
ton rs this board is expected either to furnish
or to prepare to have furnished without further
cost to the Government. The cost of these
abortive efforts, made through the agency Of
individual agents sent over the country, has of
course been much greater than the expense of
assembling this board here will Be for it Is to
cost tho treasury but two thousand dollars in
ell, most Of the members giving their services
in the good cause, and paying their own e1-
penses while 50 doing.
On the first two days of the sessions of this
board, a disposition was manifested By some of
its components to have it undertake the duty
of recommending some distinct course of Con-
gressional legislation and Executive action for
the benefit of agriculture; which subject, on be
ing discussed for few hours, was quietly and
very properly laid on the table by an over
WhelmiDg vote, as being entirely foreign to the
true object of the convocation This action
was in just keeping with the high reputation Of
the leading members for practical sense
We mentioned above that many of the most
distinguished advocates of agricultural and
Horticultural progress are lending their SER
vice to the Government in this matter Among
them we may name Marshal P. Wilder, ESQ. =,
OF Boston, Mass, for eight years the Prssi.
dent of the Massachusetts, State Horticultural
Society, the founder and for six years the
President Of the National Agricultural Socie-
ty, and also the President of the National Po-
biological Society," gentleman, whose labors
for many years, have been of infistte service
to the cause In which he is 80 deeply interest
ed; Mr.. Tilghman, of tho Eastern Shore of
Maryland, the present President of the Ma
tional Agricultural Society, one of the most
extensive and successful farmers of his State
useful Agricultural School at College Hill.
OHIO, near Cincinnati; Mr.. Gowen, Of Phila-
delphia, the owner Of q large Pennsylvania
farm, regarded by many as the model in that
State, for its enlightened management, who.
by-the-by, founded the Mount Airey Agricul-
tural School, than which no other in this conn
try has proved more beneficial in spreading
practical agricultural science and information:
Mr. Ewing, an extensive and very successful
farmer In western Pa widely known for agri-
cultural enterprise; Mr.. Calvert, of Maryland,
the protector of the Agricultural College of his
State, long the President of the Maryland State
Agricultural Society, and well known here. as
throughout Maryland, as having devoted, for
twenty years past, not only cons derable por-
ton Of his time and his highly cultivated mind,
but OF his large wealth, gratuitously, to agricul
tural progress; the two Messrs. Bowie, of Prince
Georges, Md, one as justly famous for suc.
cessful breeding and improvement of sheep of
English blood, as the other, planter on the
Patuxent, is for his writings in the american
Farmer, and his management of his own estate:
Mr. Clement Hill, of the same county, one of
the largest tobacco planters Of Maryland, and
at this time the first in the ranks of Mary
lands many breeders Of short horn stock: Mr..
kennicutt, Of Illinois, the founder and Score
tary of the Illinois State Agricultural Society,
known throughout the Northwest as being
the very head and front of agricultural pro-
gress there; Mr.. Holbrook, who has been
the President Of the Vermont Agricultural
Society since its foundation, a gentleman of
great practical knowledge; Mr.. Bartlett, of
New Hampshire, the former editor of the
Boston C~ftivator, on the tripod of which
he was, as is well known, for many years a
very important lever in behalf of agricul-
tural progress; Mr.. Holmes, of Maine, the
Secretary of the Maine State Agricultural
Society, and the founder and editor of the
Maine Farmer, capital weekly agricul.
tural journal, as We know we'll; Mr.. DeNeveu,
OF Michigan, farmer who sells annually from
his fields and orchards perhaps 10000 bushels
OF wheat and 5000 barrels of apples; Mr.. Ham,
mond, of South Carolina, one of the most ex