66 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW- YORK. 



human benefit, when, from the application of that fertility, he 

 rept his wheat and fed his herds where the saurian first grazed 

 the lichen and the fern. 



Science alone will not teach the agriculturist all he is to know 

 to attain a high and a successful cultivation. Practical experi- 

 ments intelligently conceived and carefully executed, are first to 

 elicit facts — to shew results, before reliable systems can be esta- 

 blished. To procure such experiments and bring out results, has 

 formed an important part of the labor of this Society. To 

 accomplish it, their premiums have been liberally offered and paid. 

 The results have been highly satisfactory. Amongst these results 

 are better plowing, better breaking down and pulverizing of stub- 

 born soils, better attention to time and manner of seeding, better 

 manuring, better rotations of crops, better cultivating and secu- 

 ring of crops, and withal, by a proper rotation and a proper 

 manuring, a compensating system has been taught by which, 

 whenever a crop is taken off', its equivalent in fertility is returned 

 to the soil. For draining too, the Society has been liberal in its 

 premiums; the result is that thousands of acres of our lands, 

 and some too which were thought not to need it, have been greatly 

 improved, and some brought from a worthless state to that of the 

 first class in their neighborhood. From reported results, immense 

 numbers of farms have been improved, as well by draining as by 

 those other means, to an increase in their yield from twenty-five 

 to more than one hundred per cent., and have been increased in 

 their marketable value in an equal ratio. 



The improvement in our farm stock has been as successful as 

 that in our agriculture proper. There is hardly a distinguished 

 herd of Shorthorns, Devons, Herefords or Alderneys in England, 

 or Ayrshires in Scotland, that has not its representative here. So 

 too of the Leicester, Cotsw^old and Southdown flocks of England, 

 and also of her hog pens. The best fine wool flocks of Spain, of 

 France, of Saxony and Silesia, have been largely drawn upon to 

 fill our sheep walks and improve our staple. This improvement, 

 it is to be borne in mind, " is greatly due to the munificence and 

 public spirit of many gentlemen not engaged in agriculture as a 

 pursuit." But to all who have taken part in it, the Society has 

 cheerfully offered its. premiums, and wiiathas been to them much 

 more acceptable its mark of approbation. 



