388 [Senate 



them, believing the valuable information contained in those monthly 

 publications, would not only amply compensate every reader for the 

 small expense of it, but would excite among the farmers of Rensse- 

 selaer county, a laudable desire to improve in the cultivation of their 

 farms, in the raising of stock, and give the earliest information of 

 the various improved labor-saving implements constructed and used 

 in the cultivation of the soil. 



All which is respectfully submitted. 



Martin Springer, 



William Teller, )■ Committee. 



William Van Veghten, 



Report on Household Products. 



The undersigned committee, to whom was referred the subject of 

 household products, report that they have given this important sub- 

 ject all due consideration. Highly gratified by the many neat, useful 

 and substantial articles submitted to their inspection, they have been 

 led to desire more strongly than ever that domestic manufactures may 

 be increased, and presented at the next fair in still greater number 

 and variety. They are fully satisfied that the household arts are 

 complicated, and still admit of valuable improvements from science 

 called in as an auxiliary to ingenuity and enterprise. The attention 

 of farmers and their households is earnestly invited to this subject. 



The farmer who w^ould enjoy comfort and plenty must have more 

 to sell than he needs to buy; indulging in luxuries only when they 

 can be purchased by the surplus produce of the farm, after his neces- 

 sary wants have been supplied. That this extra supply can be se- 

 cured to him by moderate industry skilfully applied, ought not to be 

 doubted, and with it he could not fail to have means for purchasing the 

 raw materials whenever demanc'ed by the exercise of his skill in pre- 

 paring household products. 



Water power was first applied to the spinning of cotton in 1804. 

 Prior to that time, a large part of our cloths were household manu- 

 factures. Many then thought the nation would be ruined by so seri- 

 ous an interruption of spinning and weaving, but the spirit of inven- 

 tion and enterprise which distinguish our country and the age, has 

 originated other spheres for the exertion of skill and the display of 

 industry in the domestic circle; and even in regard to products now 

 more cheapened by improvements in machinery and by " division of 

 labor;" in connection with the application of water and steam power; 

 wherever domestic industry finds no more objects to test its skill and 

 energy, it may yet continue to move in its wonted paths, under the 

 full conviction that every exercise of skill, and all the habits of in- 

 dustrious employment in themselves sources of numerous benefits, 

 both direct and collateral, and that the products of skill thus exerted, 

 will be duly noticed and appreciated. 



The manufacture of palm-leaf hats and straw bonnets, (even though 

 steam in its wide-spread application has reached to them,) yet deserves 

 the attention of housewives and their families; in other methods 



