INTRODUCTION. 131 



effort was put forth by the legislature. An appropriation was made of eight 

 thousand dollars annually, for five years, to the State Agricultural Society, the 

 American Institute of New- York, and societies in the other counties in the state ; 

 on condition, however, that they should respectively devote to the improvement 

 of agriculture, funds, otherwise acquired, equal to the sums contributed from the 

 treasury. The effects of this beneficent law are already seen in the interesting 

 volume containing the transactions of the state agricultural societies for 1841, in 

 the general attention to agricultural science, and in the annual exhibitions and 

 fairs of the state agricultural society, and the several county associations. 



Agricultural journals also recently established, have contributed much to the 

 promotion of that important object. Among those in this state which have 

 exerted the most efficient influence, the Ploughboy, by Solomon Southwick, the 

 Cultivator, to which the late Jesse Buel assiduously devoted the energies of his 

 philosophic mind, and the Genesee Farmer, edited for many years by Luther 

 Tucker and Willis Gaylord, and now conducted with equal ability by Henry 

 Coleman, have been eminently successful. These journals have not merely dif- 

 fused information concerning the processes of agriculture, but they have assigned 

 to the farmer his proper position and just influence in society, and shown him the 

 importance of intellectual acquirement. They have elevated the occupation in 

 popular respect to the dignity of a profession, and it is no longer regarded as one 

 of toilsome service, but as one of true honor, enjoyment and usefulness. Here 

 too, as in Europe, agriculture has advantages from a more intimate connexion 

 with science. To Sir Humphrey Davy belongs the honor of making chemistry 

 subservient to the art. It now seems strange indeed, that while every process 

 in the growth of plants, from their germination to their maturity, is purely the 

 result of chemical action, scarcely an inquiry was bestowed upon the develop- 

 ment of that action, until it engaged the attention of that philosopher. Davy 

 was followed by that more profound investigator, Chaptal, and he by Liebig and 

 Johnston. The works of those authors, together with Dana's volume on manures, 

 which is of even greater practical usefulness, have now attained very general 



