and large quantities of paper were wasted in what is now secured in one column, and with far greater accuracy and detail, by inserting the exact age of the individual.

Applying this principle to the subject before us, we find, that one formidable objection against agricultural statistics, exists in the immense amount of blanks that will be required, and which must be wasted at each enumeration.

I would most urgently press the importance of simplifying these, by a process strictly analogous to the illustration just cited, and to recommend. that they embrace simply the name of the producer, and the quantities produced, of each article, with the amount of land and other comparative data required The same sheet will then have a univeral application to records infinitely varied, and the indefinite and worthless items of unenumerated products," would be altogether obviated.

In a well ordered office, these can be rapidly and certainty reduced to their proper form, and we see arising out of the seeming chaos, the symmetrical and beautiful generalizations, which carry with them the assurance that they are worth having.

I here submit a form of great simplicity, that embraces every essential quality that can be desired, and is capable of yielding great results.

Acres em-
ployed.

Quantities.

Total

value.

Sources of Agricultural Profit. The record should of course show the name of the person making the return, the extent and value of his farm, and the area under cultivation. It is in fact exactly like the journal of a country merchant, in which a page ruled for the name of customers and articles bought or sold, and columns for the values, would afford the basis from which the amount of sales of each article with each customer, and the profit and loss on each article, or with each person with whom dealings were had, could be readily determined. The person making the enumeration should be furnished with plain and clear instructions, and a list of articles constituting the productive resources of farmers. This list should be read over as a reminder to those furnishing information in cases where there was any reason to doubt whether any article might be forgotten. The mention of these names would at once recall the fact whether it had or had not been raised during the preceding year.

A line ruled across the page would allow the next neighbor, with his balance sheet of the year to come upon record, and the collection of these bound, would form the Journal of the State. It would be best to transmit all these to a central office, where the official Ledger of the season-the statistical summary and deductions, should be prepared.

If common foolscap paper were used for these blanks, we should secure ourselves from annoyance from delay in procuring unusual sizes, and delays in sending for "more blanks," as any person could supply in a moment, any deficit in the quantity allotted for his use.

To illustrate the subject more fully, I here add a page filled with the amount and variety that we might expect to find in ordinary cases. Every sheet should bear the name of the county, town, district and year, and be authenticated by the signature of the enumerator.

Cases might arise in which it would be proper to furnish blanks, printed with the names of the articles most commonly made the subject of cultivation.

No attempt should be made by the enumerator to furnish a summary of his work. They should be sent without delay, to the county clerk, from whence they should be transmitted, through the office of the county clerk, to the central office. Their official publication might occur during the year. I assume that an intelligent man, with ordinary diligence, might take a school district in three days. There may be about 10,000 districts, exclusive of those in cities and large villages, and the expense of receiving and returning blanks, and pay for services, would cost, on an average, $6 to a district.

Full returns would include the names of nearly 400,000 agricultural producers, requiring from 100,000 to 200,000 pages of blanks. The cost of printing and distributing these hundred reams of paper, would be quite unimportant, and the expense of tabulating the results is susceptible of accurate calculation, and might be made a subject of contract, with proper guarantees of seasonable and correct performance.

Having touched upon most of the subjects connected with an agricultural census, I will briefly recapitulate the essential points:

A central office for preparing and distributing blanks, and receiving, arranging and publishing the returns. County and town clerks to be made. the mediums for sending and receiving. One enumerator in each school district, appointed by the officers of county agricultural societies, and paid by the boards of supervisors as a county charge, upon presenting evidence † Shelled.

Four tons of lint.

that the work has been actually and fully performed according to instructions.

A very simple blank, and plain instructions.

Penalties for refusing to furnish information upon application by persons legally appointed, and assurances that the facts given are independent of taxation, and inaccessible for purposes of inquiry relating to individual business or personal credit.

A plan of publication, that shall place the results at least in every town clerk's office, and in public libraries, and in such manner as shall tend to advance our agricultural interest in the most effectual manner.

It is obvious that, with no modification whatever in the working details and form of blanks, the system I have proposed may be made to include the statistics of manufactures in the rural districts, and that, with varia- . tions suited to the condition of densely populated localities, it might be applied with equal facility to obtaining the results of every kind of productive industry in cities.

Thus, after wandering off upon complex and learned methods, adopting forms of blanks which, as in the federal census of 1840, opened out several yards in length, we come back to first principles, and find them after all the best! We have a blank that can be hid under the coat when it rains; that can be opened and used with facility in the field or by the wayside; that can receive the minutest details and the greatest variety of record; omits nothing, and presents the subject in a form that admits of the amplest and most elaborate generalization.

REPORT OF HON. E. CORNELL ON THE EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND-HELD AT BATTERSEA, JULY, 1862.

To the Executive Committee of the New York State Agricultural Society: As one of the delegates from your society to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, I feel it incumbent upon me to make a brief report of my observations, though I feel incompetent to do proper justice to the grand exhibition of the society held at Battersea Park, London, commencing the 23d of June, and continuing to the 2d of July, 1862, or to convey a clear and distinct idea of its extent and great excellence to the mind of the reader.

The period for holding this fair being the same as a part of that in which the Great International Exhibition was in session, and the near proximity of the two, increased the demands upon our time to such a degree as to deprive us of the ordinary opportunity of forming acquaintances. Consequently our intercourse with the officers of the society was limited to the presentation of credentials and the receipt of cards of admission to the society's show grounds at Battersea Park. I can, therefore, only speak of the fair as I saw it, and from the little I learned from the society's catalogues.

The location of the fair at Battersea Park, directly on the north bank of the Thames, with a convenient landing for the river steamers that passed up and down the river every five minutes during the day, a short distance from several of the railway stations, and within convenient distance from the International Exhibition, was admirably chosen, and gave entire satisfaction to the vast multitude that thronged the show yards of the society. Indeed, a better selection could not have been made if the society had enjoyed the option of all the parks of that great city. The laying out of the grounds was judiciously arranged, with appropriate stalls and comfortable sheds provided for the animals.

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The regulations of the exhibition can best be given in the words of the society, I therefore copy the following from their published programme: 'Governors, and members of the society who have paid their subscriptions for the current year, will be admitted to the show yards, during the time they are open to the public, without payment, by tickets issued by the secretary, which tickets shall not be transferable; and any governor or member who shall be found to transfer or lend his ticket, shall be reported to the council, and shall, in future, forfeit the privilege of membership. Members of the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, will be admitted on the same terms as members of this society. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the implement yard, open from 8 A. M. until 8 P. M., at an admisAG. TRANS.]

43

sion charge of 2s. 6d. (621⁄2 cts. our money); Wednesday, June 25th, cattle yard open at 8 A. M., at which hour the judges will commence inspecting the live stock, and make their awards. Admission, members free; non-members, one sovereign ($5). Persons entering the cattle yard from the impleplement yard will be admitted at 17s. 6d. ($4.38), having paid 2s. 6d. to get into the implement yard. The show yard closes at 8 P. M. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the 26th, 27th and 28th. of June, the general show of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and implements, open to the public from 8 A. M. to 8 P. M. Admission, 2s. 6d. each person. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30th, and July 1st and 2d, the general show to the public from 8 A. M. to 8 P. M., at 1s. each. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 26th to 28th, public exhibition of steam cultivators at work, from 11 A. x. to 4 P. M., near Farmington Station, in Kent, a distance of 24 miles from the Victoria terminus of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Saturday, July 5th, general meeting of the members at the 'Star and Garter' hotel, Richmond; Surrey at 12 o'clock."

The catalogues are the next noteworthy objects of this great show, and they present to us an improvement that we should not neglect to adopt, for the convenience and instruction of the thousands of persons who visit the fairs of our own society. The "catalogue of the beasts, horses, sheep and pigs, entered for the society show"-is a book of 155 pages, with an index of exhibitors names and numbers referring to their entries, in which each animal is entered with its owner's name and residence, and the age and pedigree of the animal, and the amount of the premium offered, all most conveniently arranged in classes.

The "catalogue of the various agricultural implements, machines, and other articles for farm purposes, seeds, roots, manures, &c.," is a book of 440 pages, with a plan of the show ground on the last page, arranged for convenient reference. This book contains an entry of each article, with a brief description of the article and its use, the manufacturer's name, and post-office address, and price of article. It contains entries of 5,064 articles that are on exhibition, convenient and tastefully arranged under sixteen sheds of great length and capacity, covered with canvass roofing, and embracing the most extraordinary and complete collection of agricultural implements, and useful articles for the farm and farmer, that was ever brought together. The catalogues are so carefully and properly arranged that a person could, by reference to their numbers, go direct to any article or animal he might desire to examine, without a moment's waste of time.

In the entries of "beasts" there was 682 head, representing all the breeds of any celebrity in England, Scotland, Ireland, the Islands and several of the continental States. At the head of the list stands the Short horns, 250 in number, divided into eight classes, four of males and four of females. The first class representing bulls above three years and under six years old. In this class we find twenty-six animals, and among the exhibitors, we note many names of distinction, such as Lord Kinnaird, K. T.; Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M. P.; Jonas Webb, of Babraham; Banks Stanhope, M. P.; Duke of Devonshire, of Holker Hall; Lieut.-Col. Townley. Of the character of these animals I will let the reporter of the "Mark Lane Express" speak. He says, "by the judges' returns, the bulls were gene