The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-02
AGRICULTURE.

We PRESENT. the following abstract of the report
of Mr.. Cspron, Commissioner of Agriculture,
which has just been issued. The subject is of
the highest interest to the great majority of the
people of the United States. The document in
full is very long, but the passages here given
embrace the most important points of the re-
port
VALUE OF FARM PRODUCTION.
An examination in detail of the facts of this
years production, in the light of enlightened
agricultural experience and of science applied
to husbandry, would furnish hints to improve
ment and aids to progress which, If adopted
generally, would increase the present value of
farm production to the extent of $500 0O0 O00
1t would do more-it would tend to the increase
of the fertility of the SOIL which now, in nine
farms out of ten, is annually decreasing, and it
wovld proportionably advance its intrinsic as
well as market value.
1t is gratifying to believe, from indubitable
evidence, the examples of rational and recu-
perative culture are relatively increasing how
ever slowly, and gradually making inroads upon
the destructive, irrational modes so generally
prevalent. These examples are most numerous
in the Middle States; are seen with omparative
frequency in the older sections of the West; are
found occasionally in New Engand and are
beginning to be noted in the Southern States;
but there is no State in which exhaustive and
irrational culture is not predominant. While
the cost of good land is less than the interest
on its intrinsic value, and its yearly income may
be enhanced at the expense of the permanent
investment, there is little hope that present
necessity or short-sighted greed will fail to
work its impoverishment; but with high prices
both of land and labor, it is more than folly to
expect remuneratiye profits from unsystematc
and unscientific culture.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION
The organization of industrial colleges, under
the land grant of Congress of 1862, chroniced
III recent annual reports of this department, has
progressed during the past year The Ohio Col
lppe lag been located in the vicinity nf (inlum-
bus, with q fund of nearly half q million of
dollars from the proceeds of lands, and a
donation of s300000 from Franklin county.
The Missouri institution has also been orga-
nized in Boone county, with local donations
exceeding $500, 900, and $50, 900 acres of land
located under the Congressional grant Col
leges had previously been organized, or de-
partments of agriculture added to existing in
stitutions, in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and California
Nebraska is now perfecting an organization, and
other States may have taken steps in that direc-
tion, of which no official or other information
has been received.
l am confident that these institutions are
destined to become vital power in the land.
STEAM PLoUGHINe.
The inventive mind of the country is strongly
stimulated with the hope of educng a distnc-
lively American machine better ada pied to the
peculiar necessities of our agriculture than the
most euccessiul foreign apparatus. The report
for 1869 contained descriptions and illustrations
of several patents of that year, and the volume
of 1870 will show that these efforts have been
continued during the present year. 1t is to be
regretted that so many still adhere to the i'm
practicable idea OF locomotive traction. The
reports of the actual work of the five steam
ploughs now in operation in this country are
extremely favorable to the idea of ultimate sue
cess in the solution of the problem of steam in
,Nllt1a Itr,er of
SILK CULTURE.
Silk culture in California has been attended
with great success up to the present time, silk
culturists claiming that the climate of that
State is peculiarly adapted to the rearing of silk
worms, on account of the dryness and equality
of the temperature, and the rare occurrence of
severe thunder storms. In Utah experiments
have been made, with success, in feeding the
worms upon the leaves of the Usage orange
instead of the mulberry. The Japanese silk
worm, SoneG cynthia, on the ailanthus, is now
perfectly accliunated, and breeds in the open air
in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and other places, but
as yet have heard nothing of the use of its
! cocoons in manufacture. Two other silk-pro.
! ducing worms, AHdcuS ydfld mai and pernyi
have bred this season in Brooklyn, but are yet
| too scarce 10 be of any value.
THE CONSERVATORY AT WASHINGTON.
! Under sy stem of rigid economy the objects
| for which appropriations were made at the last
session of Congress, viz, the erection of glass
| structures to be used in the propagation o.
economic plants the improvement of the de-
| partment grounds and the extension of the
| arboretum, have been attained, and the conser
vatory building for which an appropriation o.
| S25, eco was made, includes a grapery not con
templated in the original plan, aud the entire
structure is perhaps unsurpassed in this country
! for utility and ornamental effect, and only eX
celled in Europe in one or two instances. The
building was commenced about the 1st o
| August, and is now nearly finished, u large
| norton hpiOU already OppuDipd The mai
building is 500 feet in length, with average
| width of twenty-eight feet. The centre
compartment (siXty by thirty feeD will be flo
ished for the accommodation of the tall-growin.
tropical fruits, nuts and palm trees. The Two ent
buildings (thirty feet square) will be mainly de
voted 10 the orange family and similar fruits
that require slight protection during the winter
The connecting wings will be used tor the gene
raj collection of specialties. The grapery
directly in the centre and in the aear of tn
main building a structure $50 feet in length an
twenty-six feet in width, has been erected TO
cultivatiDg and testing the best and most selec
varieties OF foreign grapes. The adaptabilit
of the climate and soil of the Pacific coast {
this fruit is now fairly established, and the bes
varieties are objects of9special inquiry.
The important object for which this is dc
signed should not be overlooked or misundel
stood. 1t is not intended for the cultivation c
merely ornamental plants, though some atteu
tion will be given to them so far as may b
necessary to keep up practical acquaintanc
with the improved floral of other countries
hut will be occupied mainly for the propaga
tion and experimental culture of AL plants tha
may be utilized in the arts, in medicine, or i
food supply, and which promise success
their Introduction among the paying crops {
the country.
nomic value which may not be produced in som
sections of our continental domain; aud th
cosmopolitan character of our immigration sug
gests if not requires the greatest variety in pr'