REMARKS OF 



HON. SAMUEL CHEEVER, PRESIDENT N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL 



COLLEGE. 



It is matter ef special gratification to the friends of agricul- 

 ture in this State, that they have been able, through individual 

 effort, as well as by united action through our State and County 

 Societies, so far to win public confidence and public favor as to 

 be able now to come together to dedicate, to our great agricultu- 

 ral interests, a hall erected for its use from the treasury of the 

 State. 



The people who settled this country came from the monarchies 

 of Europe. In most of those countries the Feudal system pre- 

 vailed, and still prevails to a greater or less extent. That system 

 divided the rural population into two classes, that of landlord and 

 tenant. The former class, although numerically much the 

 smallest, through the machinery of government, possessed the 

 wealth and power of the country. Such were the laws and such 

 the social organization under them, that whatever might be the 

 intellect or wealth of the farmer, he must till the soil of another. 

 He must therefore belong to a subordinate class. Their people, 

 from most classes came here and settled the country. It was the 

 prevailing opinion at home that these people could not take care 

 of or govern themselves; and in their kindness some of the needy 

 members of the nobility came over to take care of them, and 

 govern them as loyal subjects should be governed; asking nothing 

 for such service, except a support in such manner as they them- 

 selves should prescribe, and such salary as the goverimieiit at 

 home should fix for the colonists to pay. These classes broncjht 

 with them their hiws and their relii^ion, and they brou<?ht also 

 their social caste and their social jtrejudices. The farmer who had 

 been a tenant at home, and therefore of a subordinate class, al- 

 thouf];h he here tilled his own fields, was ranged in the same class. 



[Ag. Trans.J D 



