72 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



walking advertisement of some fashionable tailor — as empty and 

 less useful than the decorated block that adorns his show window. 

 If we would reform the vices of the country or the city, we must 

 begin at our own firesides with that system of education which 

 will send forth our children, men and women, with educated 

 hearts and hands, as well as educated heads. And it is our duty 

 to so educate our children that the milkmaid and her companion 

 will be fitted to adorn the mansion of a Governor or the Presi- 

 dential White House. 



My own humble agency in regard to this Hall has been alluded 

 to by my long time friend, the Secretary, (Mr. Johnson.) If 

 there be any credit due to me, it is in a still higher degree due to 

 those who assisted me so wtII in procuring the necessary appro- 

 priation. Twenty-five years ago, such a Hall as we are now 

 dedicating was among my waking dreams; and I am most happy, 

 Sir, in being able to stand up here to-night among the speakers 

 whose voices are first heard within its walls. We shall pass 

 away, and our places be filled with another, and other genera- 

 tions; but the active men of the present generation, who have 

 been steadily engaged in helping forward the great cause of agri- 

 culture, will leave here a proud and enduring monument that 

 shall witness to their memory for all coming time; and may our 

 good Secretary live a thousand years to enjoy it, if he can be as 

 useful as he has hitherto been. 



Sir, the services of this night mark an era in the history of our 

 Society, and we may well pause and look back upon what thus 

 far has been the benefits of its existence. In our own State this 

 spacious Hall and the beautiful rooms above, bear ample testi- 

 mony that the farmers are no longer satisfied with the little tin 

 sign on the back street, but have ordered it to the front. Aside 

 from the benefits which have been poured out over the whole 

 State, reaching into every dwelling, spread out on every farm, 

 and blooming and ripening its fruits in every garden, the New- 

 York State Agricultural Society has been the parent and pioneer 

 of every State Society in the Union. By her example others have 

 been stimulated, until each year there are at least fifteen millions 

 of people set in motion to participate in the pleasures of the far- 

 mers' holidays. Nor is this all; our Society has done more to 

 make our people and nation known and appreciated in Europe, 



