MECHANICAL AND COMMERCIAL. well wonder. One million and four hundred

Russia and the United States.

and ninety-five thousand men have been called into the field, and $1,500,000,000 of capital

That invaluable journal and prince of bus-poured into the Federal Treasury to support iness monthlies, Hunt's Merchants Magazine, the war, without apparently disturbing the has an able article in the October No., entitled course of events or checking the supply of "Russia and the United States-Future Em-food sent to make good the short harvests of pires," showing the advanced position and Western Europe. Russia is developing simprospects of these two mighty empires. Weilar powers, and it has become apparent that copy the following remarkable passage:

in fifty years-perhaps in the lifetime of the present sovereigns of France and England— the two great nations will completely have overshadowed the political power and commercial importance of Europe and England. The present importance of the latter consists in working up the raw materials and food of Russia and the United States into goods for sale in the general markets.

But Russia and

the United States will very soon rival her in ability to manufacture. In that hour the em

The United States have the greatest number of miles of railroad of any nation of the earth. They have expended in their construction $1,000,000,000, and by means of them a population, doubling every few years, is enabled to make available the products of the most fertile land in the world. The same agency, started by American engineers, is now spreading over Russia and producing results there only inferior to those mighty creations of wealth which we have seen from their opera-pire of commerce will pass to the new powers. tion here. Under the influence of those two mighty agents, steam and rail, aided by machinery of all descriptions, the two young, active, and growing Powers of the East and the West have but started on their career. The following figures show how they compare with Europe:

Labor Saving Machinery for Women.

Having patiently and hopefully bided her time, woman is at last beginning to be relieved from that severity of drudging toil under the doom of which she has rested hitherto.

The Sewing Machine, though so long in coming, is so wonderfully helpful as almost to compensate the race for the slow and tedious finger stitching of the centuries gone by. Nor is the blessing it has conferred confined to the immense saving of actual labor which it has so effectually secured; it will also prove an incalculable good in that it has, to an extent never before realized, led the inventive genius of man into this wide and interesting field.

Per Gold Eq. m❜ls. Pop. Debt. h'd. per an'm. Russia 362,074 75,148,690 1,248,900,000 $28,000,000 U. S.....3,250,000 31,445,080 1,500,000,000 65,000,000 Total..3,552,074 106,593,770 $2,748,900,000 $27 $93,000,000 Europ & Gr. Br..1,647,125 215,913,008 7,977,464,000 41 15,000,000 Thus the two empires have an area of virgin and prolific soil more than double that of the whole of Europe. Their population is nearly one-half that of Europe, doubling every twenty years, and will, in half a century, exceed that of Europe. The power of Women have had less intellectual culture each country respectively grows in a ratio because the false sentiment of society has, in much greater than the mere increase of the the first place, denied their need of it, and population, as is manifest in the unhappy secondly, demanded such a use of their powers struggle now going on in the Union. In as must, necessarily, leave but little or no 1800, five millions of exhausted people came time for mental improvement. A more libeout of a struggle for their independence. In ral sentiment is growing in favor, however, sixty years they have overtaken Great Britain and with its advancement there will come in numbers, and have displayed a military those improvements in those material applipower in two years at which the world mayances which look to a lightening of her labors.

Knitting Machines have followed the sewing machine, and these have been succeeded by a good many others

But the object of this article was to call the attention of all housewives, and those who entertain a regard for this most important class of women, to a new machine for wringing clothes.

There is scarcely any kind of work eonnected with the operations of the household which lays so hard a task upon the muscular strength of women as the wringing of clothes for drying. And, unhappily, it is a task which always comes after the severe labor of washing, when the nervous energy is so nearly exhausted that the wringing is ten-fold

harder than it would be otherwise.

THE MINER.

Mineral Wealth of Nevada.

In a remarkable discourse delivered in Chicago on Thanksgiving day, in August last, Bishop Simpson gave the following extraordinary account of the inexhaustible wealth of the mines of Nevada:

"While in California last fall, I thought I would visit the territory of Nevada to see something of the wealth of that country. That wealth comprises what the nations of the world never yet have contended for. Were the debt of our nation to amount to 20,000,000,000 of dollars there is wealth enough there, when our debt is paid off, to give to every soldier who returns from our battlefields, muskets of silver in place of iron, [applause] and when our iron clads come back from the scenes of victory before Charleston and Mobile, and have swept away the defences of Wilmington-when the iron clads come back into our harbors, there shall be silver enough left to plate those boats more heavily than they are now plated with iron. but I speak of that wealth from observation "I do not speak now from idle speculation,

and actual calculation. When in California

I visited the mines, and I thought the time but in the mines of Nevada there were no such would come when they would be exhausted; indications visible. The more the mines are worked the richer the yield. The extent of the ledges containing the precious metal no man has, as yet, been able to measure.

*

Mineral Wealth of Arizona.

"I will mention a single instance to give you some idea of the inexhaustible supply. In what is termed the Oplin mine, a single lead, as it is called, is fifty-five feet in thickness, and inclines only at an angle of 5o. Well, some merciful Yankee has kindly re- from this altar to yon wall. This is all silver Think of the extent of that-nearly as far as membered them, and contrived a machine mingled with gold. There is more gold in which is said to do the business most admi-value than silver, but more silver in weight than gold. * There is this peculiarity rably. Indeed, patents have been issued to about it, that the deeper the mine extends, the two or three parties for machines with the richer and more profitable it becomes." same end in view. We are unable to say which of them is absolutely the best; but we have been so often assured of the good qualities of the one above illustrated that we have felt it a duty to present it for the consideration of our lady readers. It is perfectly simple, consisting of a couple of india-rubber rollers operated by a crank. The clothes are introduced on one side, and by the turning of the crank carried through and dropped into the basket on the other. A child of twelve years can turn the machine, and the clothes are left in a good condition for drying. Price, &c., will be found in the advertising depart

ment.

It is not generally known that the recent discoveries of gold and silver at the San Francisco mountain, and on the Gila and Salinas rivers, are in the region now embraced in the territory of Arizona. The discoveries are among the richest ever made on this continent, and are attracting thousands of miners from California. Late dispatches from San Francisco state that steamers have gone from there to the nearest seaports, heavily laden with mining implements, and that there is a fair prospect that the new territory will soon be largely populated, and take rank with Ne

vada and Colorado. We learn that the terri- was finished and the institution opened in torial officers of Arizona left Leavenworth 1860. last week, and will go through as speedily as possible. They were escorted by several companies of cavalry, and followed by an extensive train.-New York Evening Post.

From Havana by steamer across Lake Geneva, the journey is brief and delightful. The world can boast of no finer little lake, and the country on either side is beautiful, most of it highly improved.

Some little time before reaching Ovid Landing, the eye is attracted by what at first appears to be a cluster of tall forest trees on the high lands beyond. A little nearer, and these apparent trees are transformed by clearer vision into what now are defined as chimneys on the top of an imposing structure hitherto concealed by timber nearer the lake. That building and the beautifully sloping lands on which it stands, are the visible representatives of

THE LOCATION.

A better location than the present one could hardly have been selected. Though not central to the State, geographically, still its ready accessibility from all points by rail and steamboat, renders that circumstance of but trifling importance. Seneca county lies in the heart of a fine farming district, between Seneca and Cayuga lakes, and the village of Ovid, whose western suburbs are the eastern boundary of the College Farm, is the elevated centre of the county, commanding a view of portions of several counties, and presenting to the eye as magnificent a prospect as it has ever been our good fortune to enjoy.

From the village, the Farm, which until lately embraced 700 acres, slopes gradually some two miles and a half westward to the border of the lake; the lower limit being over 500 feet lower than the upper. The soil is chiefly of a clayey character, though several varieties are presented, rendering the Farm on this account very desirable. The soil rests upon shale rock, limestone and slate; each of these cropping out at different places on the premises. The Farm is well watered by a living stream of sufficient magnitude to furnish a good mill power, now in use, and near the upper end there is a fine body of timber.

THE COLLEGE EDIFICE

THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, the object of this detour from our line of travel. As long ago as 1844, Judge Buel and other leading friends of agricultural education agitated the subject in the public jour-stands upon a handsome swell about midway nals and in the Legislature of the state. of the Farm, which is, unhappily, bald of all Nothing was actually done, however, towards trees. When completed according to plan, it the establishment of an agricultural college, until 1853, when an act of incorporation was passed, but without any provision for means to carry the act into effect. But in 1856, another act was passed authorizing a loan from the Treasury of $40,000, without interest, for twenty-one years, in aid of the enterprise; provided an equal amount should be raised by subscription; which condition was at an early day fulfilled, the required amount being chiefly subscribed by the citizens of Ovid and vicinity. So that a portion of the building

will consist of a central portion with two handsome towers, two wings with front lines parallel to that of centre, each 84 feet in length, and beyond these two transverse wings, each 128 feet deep and 58 on front line the whole, except the first named wings or "curtains," five stories high. It is designed that it shall be finished with all the improved modern facilities for ventilating, warming and lighting, and that it shall contain apartments for not less than 350 pupils.

The portion already completed is simply

the southern end, including the transverse forced into sale for the liquidation of a mortwing and the "curtain" in its rear; or about gage debt incurred for the improvements one-third of the whole-sufficient for the tem- already made, porary accommodation of 150 students. From its windows one has a glorious view of its charming lake and surrounding villages and country for many miles. All in all, there is probably no finer site for a college anywhere in either the old or new world, and the building is likely to be worthy of the site. There are also two or three other buildings, including a farm house and residence for the President, but not of great value.

THE EDUCATIONAL PLAN OF THIS COLLEGE

is different from that of any that have, as yet, been organized in the United States, in that it is more exclusively professional. The languages are excluded altogether, and the time which in the literary colleges is usually devoted to them is to be devoted to the study of the Practical Sciences and their applications to industrial pursuits. The course of instruction is limited to three years, at the expiration of which time the student may, if able to pass a thorough examination, receive the degree of B. S. A. (Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture.) "It is not intended to be a manual labor school, still the student will be required to spend such time in the field as may be necessary to apply the theory to the practice of husbandry;" the law requiring that each shall be thoroughly instructed in all that pertains to the practical management of the farm, the dairy, and of the various kinds of live stock.

New York proudly, and justly, bears the title of "The Empire State;" it remains to be seen how long she will deserve the reproach of allowing an enterprise of so great magnitude and importance as the endowment of an institution for the benefit of her large (agricultural population to languish for want of means which, all summed up, would be utterly insignificant, whether as compared with her immense resources or with the noble and beneficent end to be accomplished.

We have not yet learned whether the Gov. ernor has approved the bill passed by the Legislature giving the scrip awarded to New York under the act of Congress granting lands for the endowment of agricultural colleges, to the People's College alone, but we have presumed that he would veto it; in which event the next Legislature will undoubtedly divide the amount between the two institutions-thus throwing into the hands of each scrip equivalent to nearly half a million of acres of the public lands. Should this not be done, then we trust the State will make an appropriation from its own treasury sufficient to set the State Agricultural College fairly on its feet. Farmers of New York! see to it that the Empire State does not longer remain a stumbling block in this regard to the several younger and lesser states now zealously at work for the advancement of In

PRESENT CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE dustrial Education.

INSTITUTION.

Although formally opened, as before remarked, in 1860, yet the embarrassment of its finances, together with the excitement and distraction incident to the present unhappy war, compelled a discontinuance of instruction in the fall of 1861, when a large number of the students, and even the patriotic President, Gen. M. R. Patrick, entered the service of the country.

The farm has been but little improved since the purchase, for want of funds, and even a portion of it-the eastern end-has been

War and Education.

While war is abroad in the land, compelling of our national existence, it may seem idle, us to the most gigantic endeavors in defense if not even unpatriotic, to expect any large measure of serious attention to the ordinary affairs of the schools. A mandate of Divine Providence has ordered us to the front rank of contending nations, and engaged us in a conflict which absorbs into its own terrible channels almost the entire currents of our industries and our ideas. A generation thus called upon to struggle for its life and liberties, might well be excused if forgetful, for a time, of the generations coming after it.

But the grand march of humanity stops not

in its course even for war. From the cradle to the coffin, the crowding columns move on with lockstep through the successive stages of life. Children cannot halt in its progress for returning peace to afford leisure for education. On into the years to manhood, to citizenship, to destiny-it rushes, whether learning lights its path and guides its steps or ignorance involves it in error and conducts it headlong into vice. And if in peace the school is needful to rear our children to an intelligent and virtuous manhood, how much greater the need in war, which with its inseparable barbarisms, is drifting the nation from its onward course of peaceful civilizaton back to the old realms of darkness and

of brute force.

MISCELLANEOUS.

A Glimpse at the Illinois State Fair. PROF. HOYT:Dear Sir:-In compliance with your request, I will say a few things in relation to the Illinois State Fair, which I had the pleasure of attending.

DECATUR, where it was held, is pretty well down south for the accommodation of the northern portion of the State, which, including Chicago, undoubtedly contains much the largest half of the fair-going population and to make the matter worse, the railroad arrangements were almost entirely incomplete and out of joint. Going down on the Illinois Central at night, parties had to lay over at Tolono, a little (less than a) one horse town, eight hours, and we understood the same was the fact on the St. Louis and Alton road, showing no arrangements whatever to accommodate the Fair-a sad oversight on the part of the officers of the Society, or lack of accommodation of the railroad companies. As the Fair is to be held there next year, it is to be hoped that the matter will be better attended to, as a stop of eight or ten

The high and heroic aims of this conflict will doubtless mitigate the evils which necessarily attend an appeal to arms. To say nothing of the physical health and prowess that camp life and military discipline will develope, the love of country and love of liberty will rise again from mere holiday sentiments to the grandeur and power of national passions, and the Union, made doubly precious by the blood which its maintenance will cost, will attain a strength which no mortal force can shake or destroy. History will grow heroic again, and humanity itself will be inspired and glorified by this fresh vindication of its God-given rights and duties in this incarnation and triumph of the principles of constitutional and republican liberty. The too absorbing love of money which has hitherto characterized us, has loosened, somewhat, its clutch, and been won to acts of gen-hours in a place where not even a newspaper uine benevolence, at the sight of an imperiled country; and the fiery demon of party sinks away abashed before the roused patriotism which lays life itself on the altar of liberty. But with all this the barbarisms of war are too palpable and terrific to be forgotten or disregarded, and the wise and patriotic statesman will find in them a more urgent reason for fostering those civilizing agencies which nourish the growing intelligence and virtue of the civilized people. Against the ideas and vices engendered in the camps, and amidst the battle-fields, we must raise still higher the bulwarks of virtuous habits and beliefs, in the children yet at home. We shall need the utmost stretch of home and school influence to save society and the State from the terrible domination of military ideas and military forces, always so dangerous to civil liberty and free government.-HoN. J. M. GREGORY, Michigan School Report.

The Agricultural College lands have at last all been located, and the Commissioners' Re. port gives evidence that the work has been well done. Better lands have been secured than it was supposed were yet vacant in the State.

can be found, is a sad loss of time to one who is in a hurry and has only a little time to either use or waste. So much for the getting to the Fair, and now for what I saw there.

Decatur is a pleasant, scattering, western prairie town, claiming some four thousand inhabitants, split through by the Great Western Railway, on the track of which, about one and a half miles west of the city, are the fair grounds, situated upon an undulating, woodsey site, just cleared and fitted for the occasion.

The grounds are capable of being made very beautiful, and were finely fitted, having had some $10,000 expended upon and about them, making them in all things convenient for holding a fair. Good water, that all-important item, is supplied in abundance by a small creek and some fine springs. Also a good half-mile track, within the grounds and out of the way of every thing else.

Articles on exhibition were medium in