DONATIONS.

Donors and their donations to the museum of the Department of Agriculture.

Dep't Ag're, Washington, D. C Pine leaf fibre and cloth; rice paper;

pyrethrum for destroying insects, &c.
Eight specimens emery rock.
Cotton grown in Nebraska.
Thread from China grass.

U. S. consul, Sheffield, Eng.. Splendid specimens China grass (Beb

E.W.Rogers & Sons Whallonsburg, N. Y

[Compiled from the monthly reports of nearly two hundred and fifty observers in more than thirty States and Territories of the Union, made to the Smithsonian Institute through this department.]

The increased and increasing attention of agriculturists to meteorology, as connected with the science and art of tilling the soil, is one of the gratifying signs of our times, presaging a future of crops more carefully adapted to climate, circumstances controlled so as to render harvests more certain, cultivators better remunerated, markets more regularly supplied, and the aggregate resources of our country greatly and permanently increased. This, with the cordial recep tion given to essays in the annual reports of this department, in which meteoro-. logical principles and facts are applied to agriculture, requires that those interested should have information that will enable them better to understand and apply the statements made by those writers. The present volume contains similar articles, which, it is believed, will quicken and strengthen a desire to use these tables, and to acquire more information in relation to the climatic peculiarities of our widely spread country.

Nor is this all. Those who are led to acquire information will also become qualified to impart it. There are many subjects on which the common farmer— illiterate though he deem himself or be considered by others-may gather and communicate information valuable to scientific men as well as to his fellowfarmers. The general expansive and upward activity of mind in agricultural circles indicates a dawn of important discoveries, to the unfolding of which things old as well as new may be greatly subservient. For instance and illus

tration, the Rev. George A. Leakin, of Baltimore, Maryland, has requested this department to call the attention of farmers to well-remembered seasons remarkable for droughts or rain, scanty or abundant harvests, &c., and to communicate such facts and dates to this department. To use his own words in the letter

referred to

"While engaged as hospital chaplain, United States army, I was led to sus pect a greater prevalence of the periodic law than was generally recognized Indeed, convinced of its universality, my main design was its extension into a realm hitherto unexplored, viz., the mental and moral. In this investigation, 1 could not fail to discover that famines, droughts, and abundant harvests, apparently fortuitous, were reducible to a sure recurrence, and that when the same observations were applied to them as to life insurance, we might guard against harvest failures with equal advantage."

This is already done in Great Britain. At least the "Royal Farmers' Insur ance Company," in London, advertises to "insure wheat, barley, oats, peas beans, rye, turnips, clover, &c., against loss by hail-storms, at moderate rates." Mr. Leakin continues

"Did my limited observation present no fact, I could no more doubt the connexion of periodicity with the field of agriculture, than the existence of gravi tation in some unexplored island; but I have it in my power to send you the following extract of an official report made to our State Superintendent of Education on the statistics of Montgomery county, Maryland:

"The climate, though variable, is healthy, and the seasons favorable for agricultural purposes. Four remarkable droughts have occurred within the past century the first in the summer of 1806, the second in the summer of 1822, the third in the summer of 1838, the fourth in the summer of 1854-an exact period of sixteen years interval. Whether the same phenomenon will occur in 1870, remains to be seen.'

"I have been further informed, by a gentleman of the highest official authority, that 'in parts of Illinois, every seven years is marked by drought.'

"Strikingly coincident with the above is the following: The Paris Constitutionnel gives a list of the famines and periods of scarcity in France during the last three centuries, from which it appears that in general one year of want has occurred for every six years of plenty. These statistics are true in the main of other countries besides France. In England, where the cultivation is more thorough, the periods of scarcity are less frequent. In Poland, the Ukraine and the Danubian provinces, where farming is the rudest, they occur more often. It is plainly owing to some law of nature, yet undiscovered, that these unfruitsul seasons take place at comparatively regular periods. They are probably the means of recuperating the soil. In this event the average production may be greater, notwithstanding the scarcity, than if there had been no bad crops. It is within the memory of all that the summer of 1854 witnessed an excessive drought. Shrewd agriculturists suggested, even then, that the parched condi tion of the ground would bring to the surface the salts which pervaded the lower soil, and of which the top had been exhausted by successive crops; and they foretold in consequence an enormous harvest for 1855. Whether the theory was correct or not, it is a fact that the result verified the prediction." "

Now, Mr. Leakin, and the writers quoted by him, may or may not be correct and the few instances given in proof are insufficient to establish their theory, and would prove a variable periodicity for different localities—yet the furnishing of the information requested, if it does no more, would refute the idea. and turn the minds now engaged in its support to some more profitable, because successful, labor. Even failure is often the precedent to great success. But if acts should be collected sufficient to unfold the existence of such a law for large sections of country, what an immense gain-what a valuable saving of time, labor, and crops-would result to the farmers and the nation.

But the above is given merely as an illustration, to show how valuable may be the most commonplace contributions of facts, such as can be made by any one who can write, to the interests of science. It needs only that the facts be well and truly remembered, with dates and attendant circumstances, and be plainly and fully stated with their details, and they become mighty to the building up or pulling down of the mere theories and speculations of the philosopher. The observant farmer has it, therefore, in his power to furnish the foundation stones and to build up the substructure of agricultural science in all its branches, as his skill and labor furnish the materials on which rest all the interests and prosperity, the wealth and resources of the community. And as he is to profit, finally, by the labors of men of science, as he profits by the manufactures and commerce of the nation, it is his duty to do good in return, and communicate all aid in his power.

But to return to our tables. It is to be deplored that many important sections of States, and even whole States and Territories, have no reporting observers, and that even many of the reports regularly made do not furnish more details. But it is hoped that in time individuals may arise in all these places, who will willingly labor to gather and report facts to the Smithsonian Institution, from whose stores thus accumulated through long years, science may gather materials with which to build up systems that will bless mankind.

We have omitted the tables of averages this year. Those for several'

vious years have been frequently given in the annual and monthly reports of the department. Those for 1865 can readily be ascertained by adding the mean temperatures and rain-fall of a State or Territory, and dividing the total by the number of stations to which they belong. We have also condensed the tables by giving the observations of two months in each table; though this reluctantly compelled us to omit the names of the highly esteemed observers who furnished the information. Their names, however, are given in previous years and in many of the monthly reports. In some cases where two reports are furnished from the same locality, we have given that only which gave the fullest details.

The department respectfully solicits information of any errors or omissions in this or former reports, that they may be corrected before any further use of these tables.

All the observations, with slight or occasional exceptions, were made daily, at the hours of 7 a. m. and 2 and 9 p. m.; and the same hours are recommended to all for the sake of uniformity.