70 [Senate 



The community will never come to a right or a sound conclusion 

 upon this subject until the feasibility of this plan is tested by so many 

 contributors to the transactions of your agricultural societies, that 

 there will be no reason to doubt the accuracy and the truth of their 

 conclusions, nor until the full knowledge of all the details of the va- 

 rious experiments shall have been had in every hamlet and neighbor- 

 hood of your entire State. 



We might multiply instances that tend to prove that both the art of 

 farming and the farmer will be alike improved by the course pointed 

 out, but we forbear. 



The p)osperity of the farming community of the State of New- 

 York will ever be an object of the deepest interest to her legislators. 

 There are causes now at work which will surely affect that prospe- 

 rity for weal or woe. Should any cause materially depress the price 

 of wool, and thus compel the farmers over a large portion of the State 

 to seek in some other kind of husbandry a remuneration for their 

 labor and capital employed, then will our agricultural interests be 

 'depressed below a point which they have not reached in the worst 

 of times. That the wool grower will have to contend ere long with 

 adverse circumstances, is more than probable. The ease and facility 

 with which wool can be raised on the pampas of Brazil, and upon the 

 prairies of the Western States, will sooner or later seriously affect 

 that interest. Should this prediction be verified, adversity will com- 

 pel the wool grower of New- York to pay close attention to the breed- 

 ing of animals which will clip the largest fleeces of the finest wool, 

 and those that can be raised and sustained in the cheapest possible 

 manner. 



The Agricultural Society have not been blind to this state of things, 

 and the course they have pursued has contributed most materially to 

 the introduction of valuable breeds of sheep into this State. The 

 committee hope the society will continue to encourage, by their wise 

 policy, the exhibition of sheep from other States at their annual fairs. 

 For it is only by comparing carefully these animals, when placed side 

 by side, that perfectly correct conclusions can be arrived at. The 

 State of New-York has a deep interest in the thorough investigation 

 of this subject. 



A large portion of our State is yet in its native forest, nor can 

 we reasonably hope that these waste lands will soon come under cul- 



