CORRESPONDENCE. 



REPORT OF CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. 



James S. Wadsworth, Esq. 



President of the JV. Y. S. Agricultural Society : 



Sir — The Corresponding Secretary of the New-York State Agrl" 

 cultural Societyj would respectfully report: 



That in pursuance of the directions of the Executive Board, he has 

 followed up a similar course of inquiry to that instituted by him the 

 preceding year, for the purpose of collecting agricultural information 

 of value to the farmers of our State. 



Communications have been addressed by him to agriculturists, emi- 

 nent for experience and skill, in this and other countries, to collect 

 such information 5 and in our own State particularly, a strenuous ef- 

 fort has been made to obtain a detailed view of the systems of hus- 

 bandry practiced in the different sections of its extended territory. 

 To ascertain the defects and advantages of those systems, with the 

 view of correcting the former by a more general diffusion of a know- 

 ledge of the latter, and by other means, is one of the first objects of 

 this Society. The first step to so desirable an end has been but mea- 

 surably secured, owing to the failure of those addressed, to prepare 

 the necessary answers. Amidst the cares and perplexities of a period 

 of unexampled pecuniary disaster and agricultural depression, it is not 

 perhaps singular that a want of leisure and a want of spirit should 

 unite to interrupt the execution of such a task; but surely there is no 

 time when the husbandman is more imperiously called upon to make 

 diligent efforts to cheapen and render more available every process of 

 tillage — to add to the value of his products and animals — in a word, 

 to adopt correct, safe and economical systems, than when the prices 

 he receives for his products are lowest. And he, who, from his supe- 

 rior experience, more extended observation, scientific acquirements, 

 or skill in tracing effects to causes, is competent to point out the steps 



