No. 112.] 193 



even ; he asks that inventive genius shall provide for his every 

 want. The result of this is that things which, a century ago, 

 would have been deemed the creation of magic, are now sober 

 matters of fact. 



Those of you who had the pleasure and satisfaction of witness- 

 ing the trial of implements at Geneva will bear witness to all I 

 say. It would be departing from my design to express my own 

 opinion as to the relative merits of the machines which were 

 there tried ; there was much, very much entitled to the highest 

 praise. It is enough that I refer to the general results of that 

 trial. What would our fathers have said, could they have seen 

 their sous riding leisurely through the harvest field, having a 

 reaper to do the harvest work, or to have witnessed the grain 

 drill or broadcast sower dropping seed more perfectly than human 



hands could do it 1 



Gentlemen — Had these things happened a century earlier, I 

 am not certain but some sagacious man would have suspected a 

 league with the old serpent, and atrial for witchcraft might have 

 been the result. The careful estimates made by the very intelli- 

 gent committee have furnished us mathematical proof that 

 economy as well as comfort require, and will, doubtless, insure 

 their general introduction. 



I should be pleased to have given you the statistics of our 

 Society, but time forbids that I enter upon their recapitulation. 

 These, liowever, are detailed in the journal and Transactions of 

 the Society. From 1832 to 1811 the society had an existence, 

 and but little more. In 1811, upon the passage of the act for 

 the encouragement of agricultu e, so creditable to the Legislature 

 of our State, the society was remodeled and placed upon a sub- 

 stantial basis. With hope and fear alternately prevailing, the 

 first fair was decided upon to be held at Syracuse. It succeeded 

 beyond the most sanguine expectations of the society. The ex- 

 hibition called forth the admiration of thousands, and was one 

 in which we took an honest pride; but now there are single 

 farmers that can boast of better stock and c:reater improvements 

 in crops than the aggregate of all then on exhibition. If you 



[Aj?. Tr. '53] If 



