The new volume, kindly sent us by B. P. Johnson, Secretary, is a new evidence of the value and importance of this Society; it is filled with valuable knowledge from the brains and pens of men who take delight not only in agriculture, but in imparting to others the lessons of experience. Rarely hare we read a volume of more interest. The portions which attract our attention particularly are Dr. Fitch's continued essays on insects injurious to trees, the oaks and their borers being his last topics. Mr. Pell's prize essay on fishes, for which an award of a hundred dollars was made, is just one of those useful and popular essays which tell on the practical public. Our correspondent, Mr. Pardee, last month noticed Mr. Pell's fish-ponds, and to them and the information they teach we propose to devote all the attention our space will now admit of.

It has long been known that fish may be made profitable; oysters have paid large profits to their planters, and as population increases, fishes must likewise become a source of wealth, no less than of convenience and health.' A man with a good trout pond so arranged that they cannot escape below a milk-house near his premises, has become a person of mark; parties leave New York and Philadelphia very frequently to make a repast on the contents of his superior preserve. But to Mr. Pell's essay, from which we make a few excerpts, wishing that we had space for it almost entire. Mr. Pell speaks as lovingly of his interesting pets as could old Izak Walton. He says: "I have eight ponds on my farm, all artificial, and fed by springs: they are with two exceptions fourteen feet deep, and contain forty-five varieties of fresh and salt water fish."He then proceeds to describe them in succession, beginning with the trout, of which - " The female is the best for the table. She may be known by her small head and deep body. Fish is always in season when their heads are so small as to be disproportioned to the size of their body. The trout is less oily and rich than the salmon; the female is much brighter and more beautiful than the male.

This is a singular fact, and I believe the only creature, except woman, that is more beautiful than the male, in all creation. When first I stocked my trout-pond, I placed 1500 in it, and was accustomed to feed them with angle worms, rose bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, etc, which they attacked with great voracity, to the amusement of those looking on. Trout and salmon will bite more readily upon a hook baited with their own roe than upon any other bait. They grow much more rapidly in ponds than in their native streams, from the fact that they are better fed and not compelled to exercise. These are the only fish known to me that possess a voice, which is perceived by pressing them, when they emit a murmuring sound, and tremble all over. * * The largest ever known in England weighed nearly twenty-three pounds. * * If it is the intention of the angler to send them to a distance, bleed them at the tail, and pack them in a basket with dry straw; when boiled, salt must be placed in the water".

Of carp he says: "There is no reason why they may not be made profitable. Fish are like hens in one respect; they never deposit all their spawn at one time, but at several periods, weeks often intervening, according to its maturity. * * Carp live longer out of their native water than any other known fish. In Holland they are kept alive twenty-two days, hung up in a cool cellar in a bag of wet moss, where they are perfectly fattened on bread and milk. * * As the North River now abounds with them, I will here mention how they may be induced to bite. Having been taught to eat bread, it is only necessary to convert it into paste and dip it in honey. With a hook so baited you may take them readily early in the morning or the dusk of the evening".

Of gold-fish, the Golden Chap, the following remark will be new to many: "I have noticed that by a proper diet I can increase the intensity of their color, change their external characteristics, improve the rotundity of their form, and add much to their size; and what is more surprising than all, those characters become hereditary in their offspring".

The sun-fish; 'he asserts that "their muscles are quite firm and free from oil, which renders them valuable for food, and particularly calculated for sick persons." The following compliment to fishermen is probably deserved: "Those who are fond of fishing, I have noticed, are generally placid, thoughtful, and particularly given to contemplate nature." * * "In China, almost every establishment has its fish-pond, in which are placed as many store-fish as it can hold; they are fed three times each day, with as much rice and blood as they will eat clean. By this management they advance rapidly in growth, and becomo exceedingly fat, and if intended for market are carried- alive in large tubs of water. The water is then drawn from the ponds for irrigating purposes, and the mud saved for top-dressing. They are then filled and stocked as before. Last year I drew off the water from a sun-fish pond, and removed therefrom 7000 loads of unsurpassed manure, intrinsically worth one dollar per load".

But the pike stories are the most exciting. He says: " I have a large pond devoted to this fish, in which they abound to so great an extent, that I might supply half a dozen families the year round from it. They are the most notoriously voracious fish in our fresh-water ponds, and will devour ducks, geese, rats, serpents, and frogs; they have an amazing number of teeth, which they use in a scientific manner; there are 700 on the tongue, as well as both jaws and roof of the mouth. These ferocious fish have become with me as docile as dogs. * * I have known a pike to swallow partially a fish too large for his throat, and to carry it thus • in his mouth, until the portion swallowed was digested. * * Pike are particularly fond of frogs as food, but the frog always makes battle when the pike approaches, and will sometimes mount upon his head, where they become very troublesome customers, placing their foreclaws in the corner of his eye, and clinging with their hind legs If this position is well taken, it is utterly impossible for the pike to disencumber himself until the frog is willing to depart, which he usually consents to do when the fish approaches near enough to the shore to permit him to leap upon it.

Pike grow faster than other fish in my ponds, making eight inches the first year, ten the second, fourteen the third, and twenty the fourth. I am convinced that an acre of pond would yield more profit than a ten acre lot. under ordinary cultivation. * * A largo pike was once caught in the river Ouse, which weighed twenty-eight pounds. • * I would recommend those eating pike not to swallow the bones, as they are excessively sharp, particularly hard, and defy the gastrio juice of the stomach to dissolve them".

The following hint to bass-fishers should be remembered. "The day before you intend to fish for bass, sink a glass bottle in the vicinity of their haunts, with small fish in it, covered with a piece of pierced parchment, or linen cloth; this will attract them in large numbers, and by dropping your line in its vicinity, baited with similar small fish, you may take many of them".

We could go on multiplying extracts, but must be content with the foregoing for the present, heartily commending the book, and this essay in particular.

Liebig's Letters on Modern Agriculture are to be published immediately by John Wiley, of New York. Dr. Blyth's translation is an excellent one, and the book deserves and will excite the attention of thinking men in all countries. Some of his positions will no doubt meet with objections. They are addressed not to agriculturists alone, but to all who take an interest in their country. From the efforts of the army of anxious laborers results in producing larger crops have been obtained, but Liebig fears that the over stimulation given to the ground may be attended with disastrous results to posterity. The mineral food of plants is shown to exist in the soil in two different states, in one being immediately available, while in the other it is not yet brought by decomposition into a condition for absorption by the roots. "In every case the produce of a field and the duration of its fertility bear a fixed relation to the sum of the available food in the soil. Hence, if by. mechanical means applied to the soil, we render the absorption of this food by plants more rapid, we thereby increase the amount of produce in a given time, and thus more quickly exhaust the stock.

At the end of this given time the field will, for agricultural purposes, be unproductive, if the mineral matters removed by the crops be not restored." We have already seen this result in America. The author directs attention to the feet that this fundamental principle has been lost sight of in some of the systems of modern high farming, where the assumption is made that the available mineral food in arable soils is inexhaustible. On this system the present occupiers of the land may rejoice in their abundant crops, but the inevitable result will be the exhaustion of the soil for future tillers.

"To question," he says, "the feet of the restoration of fertility to land by guano, bone-dust, or rape-dust, would be an act of great folly, for this fact is borne out by the experience of the practical man." He is quite satisfied with the belief that his system of cultivation has been shown to rest on a rational and systematic basis; " which in reality is not the case." He holds that the greatest importance is to be attached to unwearied efforts in directing attention to the facts on which scientific principles rest: for if we can but succeed in inducing them to reflect on the proof of these principles, practitioners may be considered as converts to the doctrines of science; without a knowledge of principles no science can exist. If the large crops are a consequence of a mode of management by which the ground must gradually lose the conditions of its fertility, by which it must be impoverished or exhausted, then such a system is not rational, though it enriches the individual who obtains these high returns.

He thinks it no longer possible to bestow again upon the soil all those conditions of fertility which have been withdrawn by the existing mode of husbandry abroad, but, by a judicious system of management, he believes so much may be accomplished with the still existing means, as to put in the shade all that has hitherto been done. He then recalls to mind the most general conditions of the life of plants. To understand correctly the effect of the soil and its constituents on vegetation, we must keep steadily in view the fact, that the elements of food present in it always possess within themselves active powers, but they are not always in a condition to exert this power. A solution of guano, when used in quantity, removes the whole of the ammonia, potash, and phosphoric acid which they contain, while not a trace of these substances can be found in the water which naturally flows from the soil. Hence our applications of stimulants, unless guided by science, will soon, if continued ignorantly, leave posterity, it may be with plenty of gold, but no food to be purchased by it.

This book requires study; we recommend it to those who would penetrate beyond the surface of things.