Year: 1859

Patent Office Reports.-There is in
every hamlet, if not every house, scat
tered over the broad acres of Uncle
Sam. to be found stray copies of books,
kicked about as valueless which have
cost the government hundreds of thou
sands to write, compile, publish and dis.
tribute. Patent Office Reports are a
drug in every market, often not opened,
sometimes not even the wrappers con-
tanning the autograph of Sprigg:ns, NJ.
c., are torn off before the black muslin
bound documents are carelessly stacked
in the most dusty corner of the worst
room in the house, and allowed to grow
yellow and musty with age and the
damps.


In this manner are treated the labor
ious collections of one of the most power
ful and important governments on earth.
Talent, genius, research, is tabooed as
soon as bound up in the homely form of
Patent Office Reports. They are sealed
books to the major part of the world so
soon as the Congressional stamp is put
upon them.


They serve purpose apparently in
political economy-to fool the receiver
of one with the impression that a man
with handle to his name amid the bus
tie of the national capital is mindful of
his constituents-and that is about all.
These mementoes of q great mans af-
fections are sometimes preserved with
care, with the specimen of his chiro-
graphy on the outside just as it came
from his fingers,or more likely from those
of private secretary who can write
lis masters name more legibly than the
owner Of it. But the idea that these un-
inviting volumes contain anything of
value appears to be rarely entertained.
They are supposed, if ever found in
private library at all, TO be used like the
painted blocks of booksellers, to fill up
the upper shelves. Occasionally phi
losopher, or book worm opens one of
these forbidding volumes and is surprised
to find mine of wealth not to be found
elsewhere. An editor. perhaps, out of
sheer curiosity or from the force of hab-
it tumbles over the virgin leaves of an
old looking volume from the Bureaus at
Washington, and finds ample employ
ment for his scissors with scarcely the
necessity of giving credit for matter pur-
loiued. 1t would be well if more Of the
profession examined these records
They might thereby not fall into the
most pcrnicious errors in regard to the
cultivation of the soil. and growth of
vegetation the progress ofthe arts and
sciences, and the works of mechanics.
In short, were the publications coming
from Washington more generally read
some of our writer's for the press would
cease humbugging the people with Eu-
ropean theori,s of slaughtering vines,
and perhaps more rational ideas of the
tap-root question might become diffused
to the no small benefit of young and un-
experienced culturists.


1t is possible too that even the most
wise in such matters might derive q
profit from perusing the chemical COM
binations of soils necessary to the sue
cessful growth of certain species Of
plants. For;instance, it is not generally
known that potash. soda. lime and its
phosphates are excellent manures to
perfect the grape. A work published
by the government would teach the
young vine grower the fact if he failed to
gain the information from the agricultu
raj papers of the State. The same
kind of reading, if not common sense,
might teach him the utter nonsense of
cutting his vines back to two or three
buds each year, or destroying the tap
roots of trees set in dry soil in the dry
est of climates. So too, many young
inventor, by more intimate knowledge
of the publications of the Patent Office,
might save himself the racking of brains
perplexing toll and the bitterest. disap
pointmeut.


These neglected documents ought to
be commended to the public as worthy
of more general perusal.


Isaac Hare, whom the Sacrament
to Standard charged with having been