POSITION AND PHOSPECTS OF AMERICAN 



AGRICULTURE. 



BY PROFESSOR J. A. NASH. 



B. p. Johnson, Esq. : 



Dear Sir — You some time since requested me to prepare an arti- 

 cle, on the above subject, for the forthcoming Transactions of the 

 New- York State Agricultural Society. Why I consented, is more 

 than I can now account for, unless it was under the impression that 

 you are so hard a worker for the cause of Agriculture, and yet so 

 reasonable in your expectations of others, that it would be wrong 

 for any one in the Empire State not to do, or at least attempt to do 

 your bidding. Certainly it was not for the lack of a belief that there 

 are thousands in this great State who would do what you have as- 

 signed to me more acceptably. Eut it has always been a rule with 

 me to fulfil a promise, though it might better not have been made. 

 In pursuance of this rule, the following thoughts are presented. 

 Permit me, however, before going fairly into the subject, to suggest 

 a few simple principles, which will be found applicable before I get 

 through. 



1. It is often said by persons who seem to themselves to have 

 discovered something important, that it takes a great many sorts 

 of people to make such a world as we live in. This is just as 

 true as any other truism. There are a great many sorts of people 

 — enough, in view of the wants of mankind, to do everything that 

 ought to be done, to say nothing of things that ought not to be 

 done. Of the former, it is desirable that each thing should be 

 dune by persons who possess a fitness for the very thing they 

 undertake. 



2. Nevertheless any thing like a perfect fitness between men 

 and their employments is not yet seen, and probably will not 

 be soon. Some men will j>reach the g()S])el, who are not willing 

 to live by it, and some, who have precious little power to per- 



