66 [Senate 



tion, and in a manner well calculated to rivet the attention and impress 

 it on the memory of all who may have attended such discussions. 



The progress of agriculture must of necessity depend very much 

 upon the number and results and success of the experiments made by 

 its votaries. An experimental farm has not unfrequently been suggested 

 by the friends of agriculture as a desirable appendage to the State 

 society. 



Your committee will not deny the advantages that would result from 

 a well conducted experimental farm ; but they deem it proper to say, 

 that in their opinion it is not judicious to move in such matters very 

 much in advance of public opinion ; besides, there is great force in 

 the remark that a variety of experiments, all tending to the elucidation 

 of the same point, and made by different practical farmers, situated 

 on different soils and under diverse circumstances, must have a more 

 beneficial tendency than any experiment made upon a farm merely 

 experimental, and by persons who are not likely to have in the outset 

 at least, the fullest confidence of the farming public. The proverbial 

 caution of the farmer will prevent him from giving ear to startling 

 truths, truths though they be, that do not emanate from sources in 

 which he has confidence. 



Under this view of the subject, your committee feel disposed to 

 approve of a course which has this year been barely shadowed forth, 

 by the few premiums which have been proposed by the State society 

 for experiments in raising certain crops under prescribed conditionSj 

 and which will be paid when the experiment is terminated, some year 

 or two hence. This proposition your committee believe to be a wise 

 one, and they think it cannot fail to secure the cordial co-operation 

 of the enlightened farmers of New-York. Such a course steadily 

 pursued from year to year, will give to the transactions of the society 

 an interest that cannot be surpassed. These transactions ought to have 

 weight and character with the farming community, and their influence 

 should be salutary upon their intelligence — not only gratifying a laudable 

 curiosity, but stimulating also a spirit of inquiry, a result which the 

 course proposed seems likely to effect. 



Your committee are well pleased to say that the transactions of the 

 New-York State Society have contributed much to raise the character 

 of the country abroad. Many of the European societies, and not 

 a few of their scientific men, have expressed to the oflficers a strong 



