No. 112.] 429 



annual message, wh^n about to lay oiF the mant]e of political 

 power, and sheath his sword in a sheaf of the harvest, used 

 the followiijg language : 



" It will not be doubted that, with reference to either national 

 or individual welfare, agriculture is of primary importance. In 

 proportion as nations advance in population and other circum- 

 stances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent and ren- 

 ders the cultivation of the soil more and more an object of pub- 

 lic patronage. Institutions for promoting it, grow up supported 

 by the public purser and to what object can it be dedicated with 

 greater propriety." 



Millard Fillmore, a son of New-York, who now so honorably fills 

 the Presidential chair, he who has so firmly and manfully stood 

 by our Constitution and its laws, in its hour of greatest peril and 

 danger, and who now in his high station is proud to say to his 

 countrymen, that he wnce swung the scythe and the axe, and used 

 the spade and the hoe to obtain his daily bread : He, too, in view 

 of the increased interest of agriculture, in his last annual mes- 

 sage, made the following recommendations : 



'^ Agriculture may justly be regarded as the great interest of 

 our people ; four-fifths of our active population are engaged in 

 the cultivc;tii)n of the soil, and the expansion of our settlements 

 over new territories is daily adding to those engaged in that vo- 

 cation. Justice and sound policy therefore alike require that the 

 government should use all the means authorised by the Constitu- 

 tion to promote the interest and welfare of that important class 

 of our fellow citizens. And yet it is a singular fact that whilst 

 the raanu/acturing and commercial interests have engaged the at- 

 tention of Congress during a large portion of every session, and 

 our statutes abound in provisions for their protection and encour- 

 agement, little has yet been done for the advancement of agricul- 

 ture. It is time that tlus reproach tu our l(\gisIation should be 

 removed, and I sincerely hope that the presefit Congress will not 

 close its labors without adopting elTicitut means to supply the 

 omission of those who have preceded them. An agricultural bu- 

 reau, charged with the duties of collecting and diftseminatiog cor- 

 rect Lulormatii>n as to the best modes of cultivation, and of the 



