No. 112.] 621 



The trial of implements at Geneva, was not confined to reapers 

 and mowers, although for me, these constituted the chief features 

 of interest ; plows, horse-powers and thrashers, seed-planters, ^.c, 

 were also exhibited, and among the competitors our neighbor, 

 Eddy, was found as usual in tlie front rank. 



The broad and fertile fields of the great west have hitherto been 

 so far from market, and so sparsely settled, that we, so near the 

 great market of the sea-board, had little to fear from unfavorable 

 competition. But now they get the same intelligence, and by the 

 same flash of lightning that conveys it to us, the network of rail- 

 roads over the Avhole country, very nearly annihilates distance; 

 and the improvements in labor-saving machinery, adaj/ted to the 

 culture of the level states, give them an advantage over numbers, 

 and mere muscle exerted on old and worn lands. In order, then, 

 to stand the competition, we must do as our western brethren do, 

 facilitate, and thus cheapen the processes of farm labor by the 

 introduction of labor saving machines, as well as by increasing 

 the productive qualities of our soil by judicious and intelligent 

 culture. 



« 



While then we look forward with satisfliction to the day when 

 the muscle, which is now alone employed to perform much of the 

 toil of the farm, shall be aided, and in many cases superceded by 

 mechanical contrivances, we rejoice to know that these advan- 

 tages to the owner of land can never result in injury to the land- 

 less laborer. These all tend by an unerring law to increase the 

 amount, and cheapen the price of ihe means of living, and to dif- 

 fuse more widely through the community, the blessings of abun- 

 dant food and abundant employment. 



Report of Dr. Asa Fitch, in favor or an Agricultural College, 



The establishment of an A^'riculliiral College and Kxpurimcn- 

 tal Farm, is a measure of such obvious importance and utility, as 

 scarcely to call for an argument in its support. Agriculture is 

 the basis of our national wealth and prosperity. It is the pur- 

 suit in which a largo majority of our citizens are employed. Its 

 many and various oj^erations and processes are direct application 

 of the principles and illustrations of the facts of dillerent sciences, 



