AGRICULTURAL BUREAU.

highest hopes of our race. As a nation of farmers, it is our duty, as well as interest, to inquire by what means, and upon what terms, the fruitfulness of the earth, and the health and vigor of its products, may be always maintained, if not forever improved. As showing the necessity of the adoption of a more intelligent system of farming than has hitherto prevailed in the United States, statistical tables very carefully prepared and published in the Patent Office Report of 1851, show that we annually waste enough of the elements of bread, without which not the first kernel of corn can be formed, to produce one thousand millions of bushels of this important staple. The same is true of some other branches of production.

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their experience and researches have learned in this branch of knowledge, and the dissemination of the information thus obtained among our own agriculturists, would unquestionably produce the happiest results. We conceive it to be an object of sufficient importance to merit the most serious attention of government. It would not only arrest the deterioration which the soil is now suffering from bad farming in all parts of the Union, but would, in a few years, lead to the entire restoration of those parts of the country which have already been exhausted. This is a duty which government owes to future generations, whose lot it will be to toil and struggle upon the scene, which to us is almost one of unmingled happiness. Far different, however, will it be to the unborn millions who are to come after us, if, through our improvidence, they are destined to succeed to an impoverished and exhausted inheritance.

That a persistence in this ruinous system must ultimately result in impoverishing the soil of the whole country, is a conclusion from which we can not escape. Investigations made within the last few years, show that in some parts of the Union the pro- The discoveries of modern science have cess of deterioration has made alarming ad- in no other regard so important a connecvances toward an entire sterility of the soil. tion with the practical interests of mankind That this evil, existing and prospective, is as in the improvements they have introthe result of bad tillage, is susceptible of duced in agriculture, and the light they demonstration. We have not space here to throw upon the science of cultivation. These show the process. Every scientific agricul- discoveries, if men are wise enough to avail turist, and every thoughtful observer of themselves of t. e knowledge which they the system of farming which obtains to a impart, will go far to falsify all the theories great extent in the United States, fully of those melancholy philosophers and politiunderstands it, and must deplore the inevit- cal economists, who have announced the able results, unless they shall be arrested coming of a period, when the earth, from by a wise and liberal policy of the federal over population, would be unable to subsist government. What was it produced the her children, and become the scene of unfamine in Ireland, and precipitated so many imaginable horrors. We hold it to be one starving men and women on our shores? of the first duties of government to adopt The answer is easy. This fearful calamity such measures as will enable our agriculwas produced by the mad and foolish sys-tural interest to avail itself of the knowltem of farming which had been pursued in edge which is so imperatively demanded by that country for several years previous. the wants of this and future generations. And in this connection, we may remark, en passant, that the immense influx of foreign emigrants into the United States, and the increased consumption of provisions incident thereto, require of us a more careful attention to the means of increasing the supply in proportion to the demand.

The creation of an Agricultural Bureau, or the annual appropriation by government of an adequate sum of money, to be devoted to investigations and experiments in the science and art of farming, and in obtaining from other countries all which

One

Number of Species of Plants. FROM an article on "Plants and Botanists," in the Westminster Review for October, we gather a few facts on this subject which may interest some of our readers. hundred years ago, Linnæus "took a census" of the vegetable kingdom, and pro claimed that 5.938 distinct and different species were known to himself and his brother botanists. Half a century afterward, the estimate had increased fivefold.

Five

years ago, Dr. Lindley, in his "Vegetable ing absorbed, will dry in a thin tough film Kingdom," announced 92,920 known species on the surface, and be more effective than of plants. There are whole geographical three coats of the same paint put upon an provinces as yet very imperfectly explored unprepared surface, which like that of comby botanists, and some few regions alto- mon wood-work, absorbs the oil from the gether unknown. In many whose floras lead.- Ohio Farmer. have been subjected to diligent scrutiny, much more remains to be done. Taking all deficiencies into consideration, and probabilities of future discovery, the reviewer thinks we may fairly accept Meyer's calculation of two hundred thousand species as about constituting the entire vegetation of our planet in its present state. And even this estimate, large as it may seem, is perthis estimate, large as it may seem, is per haps under the mark, if we bear in mind how little has yet been done toward the examination and description of microscopic beings, claiming to rank as vegetables.-be made for brick without any oil, much New England Farmer.

Water-Proof Paints.

A WRITER in a late number of the Scientific American, who gives the initials of S. C., and dates at Lebanon, in this state, supplies us with the following information with regard to paints, that may be useful to the readers of our paper:

Cheap and useful paint for roofs, walls, fences, outside plastering, etc., may be made by using tar-common tar or coal tar, made thin with spirits of turpentine. Let this be used instead of linseed oil, and to form the body, add fine earthy matter, such as dried clay or soft burnt bricks ground fine in plaster mill.

a

The soft shaly slates of different colors, like the "Ohio Paint," also answer a good purpose, when finely pulverized, to form the body of the paint. For the coarsest kind of work, dry fine sandy loam may be used as a body. Any of these earthy bodies when made sufficiently fine can be used to good purpose in painting either with the tar mixture or oil. Plastered walls on the outside of buildings may be thus rendered waterproof and lasting by using the above cheap paints, and after one or two coats, it will take but a small quantity of oil paint with lead, to make a fine finish with a single coat of any desired color. Whenever a surface thus rendered impervious by this cheap means, is painted over with oil and lead, a single coat upon the surface, instead of be

Good Paint for Brick Dwellings. A WRITER in the New York Tribune, remarking on the Milwaukie brick as a handsome building material, says that it is too expensive, and that the same effect can be produced by a cheap kind of paint, more suitable, and far cheaper for coloring brick than oil paint, which is very expensive. He says, oil paint is expensive, and is not, when on, just the thing for brick; but a paint may

better than with. The brick dwelling in which I reside, has a coat of paint upon it which has been there several years, and is now quite as fresh as when painted, and likely to remain so a great many years more. The basis of the paint is common lime mixed with water. Sulphate of zinc is the fixing ingredient. The requisite shade may be made by adding colors used by house painters. I have now in my mind buildings that have been standing quite a long time without the renewal of paint. The composition costs but little more than common whitewash. The same may be varied by adding Venitian red, or yellow ochre, or burnt sienna, (to suit the taste,) and the sulphate of zinc. This paint was highly commended by the late A. J. Downing-good authority in such matters. It forms a cement with brick which nothing but the severest friction will remove. I have seen quite a number of buildings with Milwaukie brick fronts; but have noticed a dull, rusty look about the edges of the brick that materially destroys the good effect of the cream color. A much clearer and richer cream color may be attained by using the common red brick with this composition, with yellow ochre for the coloring matter. For country houses, a somewhat more lively and warmer color may be obtained by the addition of Venitian red to the ochre in small portions.—Ibid.

NOTE. These articles on Paints are recommended to the readers as worthy of consideration. There is a sad lack of attention to the outside ornamenting of many of our dwellings and public buildings; careful attention to which would exert a fine moral effect.-ED.

SCENERY IN THE NORTH-WEST.

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Scenery, Climate and Productions of the mosses of the moister places, and scarcely enrich the colors of the distant hills.

North-west.

In the Western Journal and Civilian, pub- the republican swallow (Hirundo fulva) adThe clustered nests of large colonies of lished monthly in St. Louis, among many here to the ledges of the limestone cliffs, valuable papers, there is one which at- and the bank swallow has pierced innumertracted my attention. It is a review, by able holes in the sandy brows [bluffs?] Dr. Prout, of "The Arctic Searching Expedi-ature of this latitude, 60° N., in July, from Some idea may be formed of the tempertion; a Journal of a Boat Voyage through the following extract:-The power of the Rupert's Land and the Arctic Sea, in search sun this day, in a cloudless sky, was so of Sir John Franklin: By Sir John Richard-great, that Mr. Rae and I were glad to take shelter in the water, while the crews were son." Instead of referring to the book itengaged on the portages. The irritability self, not now at hand, I have marked some of the human frame is either greater in of Dr. Prout's selections, as possessing in- these northern latitudes, or the sun, notterest to the physiological and botanical withstanding its obliquity, acts more powerfully upon it than near the equator; for I have never felt its direct rays so oppressive within the tropics as I have experienced them to be on some occasions in the high latitudes. The luxury of bathing at such times is not without alloy; for if you choose the midday, you are assailed in the water by the Tabani, who draw blood in an instant with their formidable lancets; and if you select the morning or evening, then clouds of thirsty musquitos, hovering around, fasten on the first part that emerges. Leeches also infest the still waters, and are prompt in their aggressions.

readers of this work:

The vegetation of this district, Athabasca Lake, is thus described:-The oaks, the elms, the ashes, the Weymuth pine, and pitch pine, which reach the Sackatchewan basin, are wanting here, and the balsam-fir is rare; but as these trees form no prominent feature of the landscape in the former quarter, no marked change in the woodland scenery takes place in any part of the Mackenzie river district, until we approach the shores of the Arctic sea. The white spruce continues to be the predominating tree in dry soils, whether rich or poor; the Bank- The following notice of the limit of the sian pine occupies a few sandy spots; the Cerealia is interesting :-Barley is usually black spruce skirts the marshes; and the sown here (Fort Simpson) from the 20th to balsam-poplar and aspen fringe the streams; the 25th of May, and is expected to be ripe the latter also springs up in places where on the 20th of August, after an interval of the white spruce has been destroyed by ninety-two days. In some seasons it has fire. The canoe-birch becomes less abun- ripened on the 15th. Oats, which take dant, is found chiefly in rocky districts, and longer time, do not thrive quite so well, is very scarce north of the Arctic circle. It and wheat does not come to maturity. still, however, attains a good size in the Potatos yield well, and no disease has as sheltered valleys of the Rocky Mountains, yet affected them, though the early frosts up to the sixty-fifth parallel. Willows, sometimes hurt the crop. Barley, in fadwarf birches, alders, roses, brambles, vorable seasons gives a good return at Fort gooseberries, white cornel, and mooseberry, Norman, which is further down the river; form the underwood on the margins of the and potatos and various garden vegetables forest; but there is no substitute for the are also raised there. The sixty-fifth parheath, gorse and broom, which render the allel of latitude may, therefore, be considEnglish wild ground so gay. On the bar-ered as the northern limit of the Cerealia in ren lands, indeed, the heath has representatives in the Lapland rhododendron, the Azalea, Kalmia, and Andromeda tetragona, but these are almost buried among the Cornicularia and Cetraria nivalis of the dry spots, or the Cetraria islandica, and

this meridian; for though in good seasons, and in warm, sheltered spots, a little barley might possibly be reared at Fort Good Hope, the attempts hitherto made there have failed. In Siberia it is said that none of the corn tribe are found north of 60o.

But in Norway barley is reported to be cultivated, in certain districts, under the seventieth parallel. It takes three months usually to ripen on the Mackenzie, and on our arrival at Fort Simpson we found it in full ear, having been sown seventy-five days previously. In October, 1836, a pit sunk by Mr. McPherson, in a heavy mixture of sand and clay, to the depth of sixteen feet ten inches, revealed ten feet seven inches of thawed soil on the surface, and six feet three inches of a permanently frozen layer, beneath which the ground was not frozen.

trees grow in exposed situations. The Banksian pine was not traced to the north of Great Bear Lake River; but the black spruce, in a stunted form, is found on the borders of swamps as far as the woods extend. The dogwood, silvery oleaster, (Elaagnus argentea,) Shepherdia. and Amelanchier grow on banks that in Europe would be covered with gorse and broom, and the southern Salix candida is replaced by the more luxuriant and much handsomer Salix speciosa, which is the prince of the willow family.

Besides these the Hedysarum Mackenzi In nine hours after leaving Fort Simpson and boreale, the Dryas Drummondii, the our party gained the first view of the Rocky Androsace Chamæjasmi, Calipso borealis, Mountains, which are described as follows: the lady-slipper, (Cypripedium,) and many -When the mountains are first seen, in de- other flowering plants adorn, and many scending the river, they present an assem- feathered inhabitants enliven the forests of blage of conical peaks, rising apparently this district on the borders of the Arctic. about two thousand feet above the valley; "The cheerful and familiar Sylvia æstiva and it is not until we come opposite to the is one of the earliest arrivals in spring, end of the first mountain, that we observe coming in company with the well known them to be disposed in parallel ridges, hav-merican robin, (Turdus migratorius,) and ing a direction of about south-southwest and the purple and rusty grackles. A little lanorth-northeast; which makes an angle of rather more than forty-five degrees with the axis of the great chain, from which they project like spurs. The circumstance of the valleys pervading the chain transversely, though with more or less of ascent, explains the reason of the principal rivers on both the eastern and western slopes having their sources beyond the axis of the range, and flowing through it. From some passages in Dr. Hooker's letters 1 infer that the Himalayas have a similar configuration.

It is evident from the following account, that a student of nature may find more to interest him in this ice-bound region than he ever dreamed of in his boldest closet reveries-As has been already said, the general aspect of the forest does not alter in the descent of the Mackenzie. The white spruce continues to be the chief tree. In this quarter it attains a girth of four or five feet, and a hight of about sixty in a growth of from two to three hundred years, as shown by the annual layers of wood. One tree cut down in a sheltered valley near Clark's Hill, measured the unusual length of one hundred and twenty-two feet, but was comparatively slender. Most of the timber is twisted, particularly where the

ter, the varied thrush makes its appearance from the shores of the Pacific. The whitebellied swallow (Hirundo bicolor) breeds, at Fort Norman, in holes of rotten trees; and the Sialia arctica, a representative of the blue-bird, so common in the United States, enlivens the banks of the Mackenzie, coming, however, not from the Atlantic coasts, but from the opposite side of the Rocky Mountain range. On the Mackenzie, there is an intermingling of the floras of both coasts, as well as of the migratory feathered tribes, the Rocky Mountain range not proving a barrier to either."

Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris.

GYPSUM, or sulphate of lime, differs from the carbonate of lime (marble) in this respect when heated, it retains its acid, while the carbonate is decomposed by the pro

cess.

Gypsum is widely diffused, and in some localities is found in immense quantities. Near Windsor, at the mouth of the St. Croix, and on the Avon, these rivers are distinguished by lofty cliffs of this mineral. The undulating appearance of that region of country is attributed in a great degree to the numerous swallow holes and sinkings

COLORING MATTER OF PLANTS.